FREY  AND  HIS:: 
WIFE-:  :::::■:::  BY 

MAURICE  ::  HEWLETT 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


I 


FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 


"Of  a   Mulflcn   Frey  roared   aloud,  making  a  terrible  booming 
noise,   and   leaped   into  the  midst  of  the   fight." 


FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 


MAURICE  HEWLETT 

Author  of  "The  Forest  Lovers,"  "Richard 
Yea-and-Nay,"  etc. 


ILLUSTRATION  BY 

MAURICE  GREIFFENHAGEN 


NEW  YORK 

ROBERT  M.  McBRIDE  &  COMPANY 

1916 


Copyright,    1916,    by 
Robert  M.  McBride  &  Co. 


Published   March,  1916 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     Who  and  What  Was  Ogmund  Ravens- 
son,  and  Why  Called  Ogmund  Dint  .       9 

II  How  Ogmund  Dint  Did  Nothing,  and 
Presently  Sailed  Home  to  Thwart- 
water;  and  What  Battle-Glum 
Thought  About  It  All 26 

III  Of    King    Olaf    Trygvasson ;    and    of 

Sigurd    Helming    and    Gunnar,    His 
Brother 37 

IV  Ogmund   Dint  Comes  Again  to   Nor- 

way, and  Meets  Gunnar  on  the  Hard 

of  Drontheim     .      .      ...     .     .     .50 

V    Ogmund   Dint   Satisfies    Himself,   and 

Sails  Home 60 

VI     The  Hue-and-cry  for  Halward  Neck    .     66 

VII     Gunnar  Crosses  the  Mountains  ...     75 

VIII     Gunnar  in   the  Forest  Hears   Tell  of 

Frey  and  His  Wonders  ....     82 

IX     Gunnar    Meets    with    Frey.     Concern- 
ing  Frey's   Wife 97 

X     Talk  Between  Gunnar  and  Sig^rid  .      .    I09 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XI     Gunnar    Turns    Frey    About    Against 

Frey's  Will 123 

XII  The  Winter  Feasts 135 

XIII  Frey  Makes  Ready  to  Go  His  Rounds  .    145 

XIV  Frey  Starts  on  His  Rounds  .      .      .      .159 
XV  The  Snowstorm 164 

XVI     Marriage  of  Sigrid 171 

XVII     Morrow  of  the  Storm 174 

XVIII     News  of  Frey  Reaches  Norway  .      .      .186 

XIX     Sigurd  in  Sweden.     The  Battle  of  the 

Ford 191 

XX     The  End  of  the  Tale 203 


FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

I 

Who    and    What    Was    Ogmund 

Ravensson,  and  Why  Called 

Ogmund  Dint 

IT'S  hard  to  say  why  men  could  not  get 
along  with  Ogmund  Ravensson;  but  so  it 
was,  and  something  must  be  said  about  it. 
He  was  of  thrall-origin,  it  is  true,  for  Raven, 
his  father,  who  became  very  rich  and  lived 
in  the  North,  in  Skaga  Firth,  had  been  a 
thrall.  Glum,  of  Thwartwater,  who  was  bet- 
ter known  as  Battle-Glum,  had  owned  him, 
and  had  given  him  his  freedom.  More  than 
that,  he  had  taken  in  fostership  his  son,  Og- 
mund, and  brought  him  up  with  his  owti  son, 
Wigfus,  and  made  much  of  him,  putting  him 


10  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

in  a  fair  way  to  gain  money  and  renown  on 
his  own  account.  When  \Mgfus  went  out  to 
Norway  and  took  service  with  Earl  Haakon 
things  stood  better  than  ever  for  Ogmund; 
for  Glum  was  aging  and  had  no  other  young 
man  so  much  in  favor  about  him.  A  thrall 
for  your  father  was  not  thought  well  of;  but 
it  had  not  so  far  stood  in  Ogmund' s  way  with 
Glum,  and  there  must  have  been  more  against 
him  than  that.  Indeed,  the  tale  says  that  his 
mother  was  related  by  blood  to  Battle-Glum, 
and  that  would  have  been  more  than  enough 
to  cover  the  taint  on  his  father. 

He  grew  up  to  be  a  fine,  broad-shouldered, 
portly,  upstanding  man,  with  a  black  beard; 
he  had  a  large,  flexible  nose,  strong  eyebrows, 
white  hands.  His  eyes  were  somewhat  small 
and  near  together ;  gray  eyes,  and  a  cast  in  one 
of  them.  But  what  of  that?  Plenty  of  men 
have  it,  and  no  harm  done.  At  any  rate,  he 
was  a  great  talker,  full  of  his  reasons  for  or 
against  a  thing.     Other  men  don't  like  that,  I 


WHO  WAS  RAVEXSSOX?  11 

fancy.  They  don't  follow  the  reasoning; 
and  the  better  it  is  the  less  they  want  it. 
Here  are  some  of  the  causes  of  Ogmund's 
lack  of  friends. 

But  Battle-Glum,  who,  as  I  say,  was  get- 
ting old,  was  averse  to  change.  He  watched 
Ogmund  from  under  bushy  white  brows,  he 
watched  him  with  quick  eye-blinks,  and  shut 
his  lips  the  firmer,  men  used  to  think,  for  fear 
he  might  let  fly  a  volley  at  the  man  he  had 
bred  up  from  a  child.  When  the  time  came, 
and  Ogmund  desired  to  see  the  world.  Glum 
furnished  a  ship  for  him  and  found  every- 
thing. So  it  was  that  Ogmund  became  a  ship- 
man  and  began  to  get  on.  He  made  money, 
and  spent  money.  He  had  a  fine  person,  and 
knew  it  very  well.  He  was  fond  of  adorning 
it.  He  liked  furs,  and  goldwork;  he  wore  a 
chain  round  his  neck,  and  a  good  ring  on  his 
forefinger.  He  had  as  yet  no  wife  in  Ice- 
land, but  his  fancy  ran  upon  a  young  woman 
of  good  family,  of  Glum's  kindred  and,  since 


n  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

that  was  so,  of  the  kindred  of  Earl  Haakon, 
of  Norway.  In  the  meantime,  he  had  a 
bondwoman  in  Norway,  and  a  steading  in 
very  good  land  not  far  from  the  firth.  She 
was  a  pretty  and  good  girl  who  did  her  duty 
by  him  and  his  household  there,  and  by  her 
children,  also,  who  were  dependent  upon  Og- 
mund  and  what  Ogmund's  whim  might  be. 
Her  name  was  Gerda ;  but  she  has  little  to  do 
with  the  tale,  which  begins  here  with  a  voy- 
age made  by  Ogmund  some  three  years  be- 
fore the  coming  of  King  Olaf  Trygvasson 
into  Norway. 

For  this  voyage  Ogmund  bought  a  new 
ship  from  some  men  in  the  North,  and  em- 
barked a  great  store  of  merchantable  goods 
which  he  had  from  his  father  Raven,  as  well 
as  what  his  own  money  could  furnish  him 
forth.  All  this  he  told  his  foster-father 
Glum;  and  he  said,  "I  hope  that  you  will  take 
it  well  in  me,  Glum,  that  I  ask  nothing  of  you 
for  this  venture." 


WHO  WAS  RAVEXSSON?  13 

To  that,  Glum,  blinking  hard,  replied  that 
there  were  things  which  any  man  might  ask 
of  another  without  reproach. 

"But,"  said  Ogmund,  '1  would  venture 
what  I  have  of  my  own,  so  that  what  I  win 
may  be  my  own  without  cavil." 

"That's  very  fair,"  said  Glum;  "and  what 
is  it  you  expect  to  get  out  of  the  voyage  ?" 

Ogmund  laughed  a  little,  and  spoke  lightly. 
"Why,"  he  said,  "I  expect  to  get  rather  more 
than  I  give  for  everything.  That  is  the 
trader's  way,  the  chapman's  way.  If  he  has 
a  piece  of  goods  that  breeds  no  profit,  over- 
board with  it.  It  has  not  earned  its  stow- 
age. 

Now  Glum  had  his  lips  shut  like  a  trap,  and 
blinked  fearfully.  "Ah,"  he  said,  "and  fame, 
and  great  report,  and  the  lifted  hands  of  men 
— what  of  those?" 

"They  are  good,"  said  Ogmund.  "Of 
them,  too,  you  may  trust  me  to  render  ac- 
count." 


14i  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Such  accounts,"  said  Glum,  "are  not  to 
be  made  in  money." 

"Well,"  said  Ogmund.  And  that  was  all 
he  did  say. 

Then  Glum  looked  at  him  with  earnest 
eyes;  and  this  time  he  did  not  blink  at  all. 
"Many  a  man  goes  abroad,"  he  said,  "who  is 
of  no  greater  promise  than  you  are,  so  far  as 
can  be  seen.  Now  I  have  it  close  at  heart  that 
in  the  voyage  you  make  you  should  rather  get 
honor  than  store  of  money.  But  you  may 
have  both,  I  believe,  if  you  go  rightly  to 
work." 

"To  be  sure  I  can,"  said  Ogmund;  and  soon 
after  this — rather  late  in  midsummer  it  was 
— he  set  out  from  Thwartwater. 

They  started  in  fair  weather,  with  a  west- 
erly wind  which  blew  steady  and  strong. 
It  held  them  all  through  the  voyage,  and  when 
they  sighted  the  islands  which  lie  close  to- 


WHO  WAS  RAVENSSON?  15 

gether  in  the  channel  of  the  Hardanger  Firth, 
it  was  still  blowing  steadily. 

But  it  was  dusk  when  they  saw  the  islands, 
and  close  upon  nightfall  when  they  were 
threading  the  course  between  them;  and  the 
pilot  whom  they  had  aboard  was  strong  for 
bringing  up  for  the  night  in  good  anchorage, 
such  as  they  could  have  where  they  were, 
rather  than  to  push  on  and  try  to  make  the 
haven  in  the  dark. 

Ogmund,  who  was  in  a  hurry,  said  that 
there  was  a  moon,  and  they  had  a  fair  wind. 
Who  knew  how  long  it  would  hold?  And 
suppose  that  in  the  morning  it  should  come 
off  the  land,  and  keep  them  beating  about  for 
a  week  or  more  ?  He  was  vehemently  for  go- 
ing, and  he  was  master  of  the  ship;  so  they 
went  on  in  the  dark. 

That  which  happened  might  have  been  fore- 
seen, and  very  likely  was  so  by  the  pilot.  In 
one  of  the  narrow  sounds  between  the  islands 


16  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

there  were  long  ships  moored  in  the  fairway. 
Before  they  knew  it  they  drove  into  one  of 
them  amidships,  cut  her  in  half  and  held  on 
their  course.     Whether  Ogmund  knew  it  or 
not — and  I  suppose  he  did — that  was  the  way 
of  it.     The  crew  of  the  rammed  ship  were  all 
in  the  water  and  most  of  them  were  saved. 
But  none  of  them  were  saved  by  Ogmund's 
vessel.     She  ran  on  her  way  before  the  wind, 
and  made  the  haven  and  was  drawn  up  on  to 
the  mainland.     The  pilot  had  something  to 
say  when  he  had  his  ship  laid  up ;  the  crew  had 
something  to  say.     There  were  not  two  opin- 
ions   among    them.     But    Ogmund    took    a 
strong  line  of  his  own  at  the  time.     He  said : 
'The  ship  lay  in  the  fairway  where  no  ship 
has  business  to  be.     Every  man  must  take 
care  of  himself  first,  but  no  man  has  a  right 
to  risk  his  life  if,  in  so  doing,  he  risks  the  lives 
of  other  men.     You  may  take  my  word  for  it, 
those  were  no  seamen  on  board  that  vessel. 
W'hv,  what  are  we  to  think  of  men  who  berth 


WHO  WAS  RAYEXSSON?  17 

themselves  in  the  fairway,  regardless  of 
traffickers  who  come  and  go  out  of  Bergen, 
so  great  a  town?  What  of  good  Icelanders 
faring  on  the  sea?  Are  their  lives,  is  their 
property  of  no  account  at  all  ?  No,  no.  We 
were  right  and  they  were  wrong;  and  that  is 
all  there  is  to  say." 

He  w^ent  ashore  in  the  morning  and  made 
himself  busy,  disposing  of  his  merchandise. 

Now  the  long  ship  w^hich  he  had  sunk  was 
one  of  a  fleet  of  them  which  sailed  under  the 
ensign  of  Earl  Haakon  himself.  The  master 
of  it  was  a  man  of  Iceland  called  Halward, 
who  had  been  in  Norway  for  many  years,  in 
the  service  of  the  earl,  and  was  close  friend 
of  his.  This  Halward  was  a  great  man  and 
a  strong  man;  everybody  spoke  well  of  him 
and  desired  his  good  opinion. 

In  the  morning,  when  he  had  heard  the 
news,  he  went  to  Earl  Haakon  and  told  him 
about  it.  His  men  were  saved;  but  his  ship 
and  all  his  gear  and  merchandise  were  at  the 


18  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

bottom.  The  earl  was  greatly  put  out,  and 
his  anger  grew  as  he  spoke. 

"Who  and  what  sort  of  land-lice  are  these 
men?  Are  they  thralls  of  Iceland  upon  a 
first  adventure  ?  Are  men  of  worth  and  sub- 
stance to  be  tossed  into  the  water  like  frog- 
spawn?  Now,  Halward,  you  have  my  leave 
to  take  your  due  and  pleasure  of  them.  It 
will  be  a  light  matter  for  you,  for  you  see  what 
sort  of  cravens  they  are.  Use  your  wit,  ex- 
ercise your  hands  upon  them;  I  give  you  a 
free  way  with  them." 

Halward  thanked  the  earl  and  was  for  go- 
ing out  then  and  there  to  have  the  law  of  his 
assailants;  but  Wigfus,  Battle-Glum's  own 
son,  was  standing  by,  and  had  a  word  to  say. 
It  is  very  possible  that  he  had  an  inkling 
whose  ship  it  was  that  had  been  sailed  so 
foully;  but  if  he  had  he  kept  it  to  himself,  and 
was  content  to  plead  with  the  earl  that  things 
should  go  by  the  law  of  the  land  rather  than 
by  the  power  of  Halward's  arm.     He  urged 


WHO  WAS  RAVENSSON?  19 

that  Halward  should  take  amends  from  them, 
if  so  be  that  they  were  wilHng,  as  he  had  no 
doubt,  to  submit  themselves  to  the  judgment 
of  the  earl. 

''At  least,"  he  said,  "let  Halward  agree  to 
this,  that  I  go  myself  and  find  out  what  men 
they  are,  and  what  sort  of  terms  may  be  made 
with  them,  supposing  that  terms  may  be  made 
at  all." 

Halward  said  nothing  in  reply  to  this;  but 
the  earl  considered  the  saying,  thought  it  fair 
and  reasonable,  and  bade  Wigfus  see  what  he 
could  do.  But  he  said  also,  "Let  these  men 
make  no  mistake.  My  plane  makes  thick 
shavings."  By  that  he  meant  it  to  be  under- 
stood that  the  fines  he  should  lay  would  be 
heavy. 

Wigfus  betook  himself  to  the  ship  where 
men  were  busy  unloading  the  merchandise. 
He  soon  saw  his  foster-brother  Ogmund,  and 
greeted  him  fairly,  asking  what  news  of  Ice- 
land and  his  father.     Ogmund  reported  all 


^0  PREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

well  there,  and  they  talked  a  little  about  the 
Thwartwater  people.  Then  Wigfus  opened 
upon  his  matter,  saying  it  was  going  to  be 
awkward,  and  that  Ogmund  would  have  a 
difficult  cause  to  plead. 

Ogmund  frowned.  "How  is  it  to  be  diffi- 
cult?" he  said.  "To  my  mind  it's  as  plain  as 
daylight." 

"If  you  had  waited  for  daylight  it  had  been 
very  much  better,"  said  Wigfus,  and  told  him 
what  had  been  said  that  morning  at  the  earl's 
council.  Then  he  spoke  strongly  about  the 
necessity  of  laying  it  all  to  that  lord's  judg- 
ment; but,  "I  will  do  what  I  can  for  you,  since 
you  are  my  foster-brother ;  and  we  may  not 
come  oif  so  badly  after  all." 

But  Ogmund  was  rather  hot,  and  would 
not  listen  to  reason.  That  is  the  way  of 
men  not  too  sure  of  their  footing;  they  spur 
their  eloquence  and  take  fire  from  it.  He 
stated  his  case  as  he  viewed  it,  and  stated  it 


WHO  WAS  RAVENSSON?  21 

at  length,  and  several  times  over.     And  then 
he  said: 

"I  know  this  earl  of  yours  so  well  by  com- 
mon report  that  I  shall  be  careful  to  have 
nothing  to  do  with  his  dooms  and  judgments. 
Why!"  and  he  spread  his  hands  wide,  palms 
upwards.  "Why!  Look  at  this,  Wigfus, 
that  he  says  beforehand  what  he  will  do  to 
me — with  his  talk  of  planing  me  deep  and  the 
like.  And  if  I  will  not  lay  a  case  before  him 
where  he  says  nothing,  how  shall  I  plead  at 
his  judgment-seat  when,  before  a  word  said, 
he  avows  what  he  will  do?"  He  was  very  in- 
dignant; but  by-and-by  he  said:  ''Mind  you, 
I  do  not  refuse  if  he  speaks  me  fair,  and  keeps 
an  open  mind.  No,  no.  I  am  not  a  hard 
man,  far  from  it.  So  much  you  may  tell  Earl 
Haakon — to  whom,  nevertheless,  I  owe  no 
allegiance;  for  I  am  not  of  his  country,  but 
am  an  Icelander,  and  a  well-friended  man  in 
those  parts." 


^'Z  PREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Wigfus  tossed  up  his  hands.  'Well,  you 
shall  do  what  seems  good,  and  be  ready  to 
meet  what  befalls  you.  If  Earl  Haakon  is 
angry,  you  will  smart  for  it.  You  have  not 
a  rat's  chance  with  him;  and  in  my  opinion 
you  are  talking  rank  nonsense.  But  have 
your  own  way." 

Now,  then,  Wigfus  reports  to  the  earl  that 
Ogmund  will  abide  his  judgment,  which  was 
not  true,  and  was  even  notoriously  untrue. 
So  said  one  of  the  earl's  men  who  was  there 
at  the  time,  and  Wigfus  could  not  deny  him. 

Then  up  and  spoke  Halward,  that  mighty 
man,  and  spoke  quietly  as  mighty  men  may. 

'*!  believe  that  Wigfus  speaks  untruly,  and 
shall  take  my  own  way,  by  your  leave,  my 
lord.  I  did  not  need  a  mediator,  and  can  do 
much  better  without  him  what  I  have  to  do." 

Earl  Haakon  said,  ''Go  on,  Halward.  Do 
what  becomes  thee." 

Then  said  Wigfus:  "Give  me  leave,  my 
lord,  to  say  this.     I  will  be  the  death  of  that 


WHO  WAS  RAVENSSON?  23 

man  who  kills  Ogniund,  my  foster-brother, 
and  kinsman — for  so  he  is  by  the  mother- 
side." 

Said  Halward:  "You  talk  over  big, 
Wigfus." 

And  Wigfus  said,  "I  come  of  a  strong 
stock." 

"I  know  that  you  do,"  said  Halward;  "I 
know  that  the  Icelanders  are  good  men.  But 
I  know  this,  too,  that  the  custom  of  my  coun- 
try will  not  suffer  a  man  to  be  injured  without 
amends  offered  or  taken.  Neither  Battle- 
Glum,  nor  you  either,  shall  stay  me  from 
avenging  a  shame  done  me." 

And  Earl  Haakon  said  that  they  should  not. 

Then  Halward  went  down  to  the  shore  to 
board  the  Iceland  ship ;  but  he  found  that  she 
had  been  run  down  into  the  water  since  the 
morning,  and  was  now  moored  a  bowshot  out. 
So  he  took  boat  and  was  rowed  out  to  the 
ship.  There  on  the  poop  he  saw  Ogmund 
standing  with  his  arms  folded. 


24  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Are  you  the  master  of  this  ship?"  says 
Halward.     Ogniund  said  that  he  was. 

"I  have  a  case  against  you,  as  you  know 
very  well,  and  have  come  to  see  what  sort  of 
amends  you  think  of  offering  me." 

Ogmund  said,  *'We  will  make  amends  if 
you  don't  ask  too  much." 

Halward's  neck  grew  red.  **It  would  not 
be  easy  to  ask  too  much  for  insolence  and 
knavery  like  yours." 

"On  those  terms,"  said  Ogmund,  "we  can- 
not deal  with  you." 

'That  suits  me  better,"  Halward  said,  and 
made  a  jump  for  the  bulwark  of  the  ship. 
He  swung  himself  up  as  easily  as  a  boy  into  a 
swing;  and  the  moment  he  was  on  deck,  he 
aimed  at  Ogmund  with  the  hammer-end  of 
his  ax,  and  felled  him  like  a  bullock.  Down 
he  went,  and  never  stirred.  Some  of  the 
shipmen  who  were  in  the  forepart  of  the  ship 
saw  it  all  done;  but  not  one  of  them  cared 
to  move.     Halward  was  a  very  big  man. 


WHO  WAS  RAVENSSON?  86 

At  leisure  he  went  over  the  side  into  his 
boat,  and  was  pulled  ashore.  Then  he  went 
to  Earl  Haakon  and  told  him  what  he  had 
done. 

"You  have  done  well,"  said  the  earl. 


II 


How   Ogmund   Dint   Did   Nothing,   and 
Presently  Sailed  Home  to  Thwart- 
water;  AND  What  Battle-Glum 
Thought  About  It  All 

THAT  was  why  Ogmund  Ravensson  was 
called  Ogmund  Dint,  or  Dint-head. 
Halward's  hammer  had  knocked  a  great  hol- 
low in  his  skull.  Men  said  you  could  have 
boiled  an  egg  in  it ;  but  that  is  nonsense.  At 
any  rate,  he  was  senseless  for  a  long  time,  and 
not  his  own  man  all  the  winter;  yet  as  soon 
as  he  was  fit  to  be  moved  he  was  carried  up 
into  the  country,  to  his  house-stead,  and  given 
over  to  his  bondwoman  to  nurse. 

Gerda,  who,  although  she  looked  as  sleek 
as  a  stroked  kitten,  had  a  shrewd  tongue  and 


HOW  OGxAIUND  DINT  DID  NOTHING      27 

a  clear  understanding,  employed  both  to  his 
discomfort — but  not  until  she  felt  that  she 
was  justified.  So  long  as  he  lay  bemused  and 
muttering  thickly  she  was  all  devotion;  but 
when  he  picked  up  a  bit,  and  presently  would 
get  out  of  bed  and  sit  by  the  fire  huddled  in  a 
bearskin,  she  did  not  scruple. 

"You  look  like  a  shagged  rock."  she  said, 
''and  with  a  cave  in  the  crown  of  it,  too.  Pity 
is  that  you  had  so  little  in  your  head.  If 
there  had  been  some  sense  or  some  manliness 
there  you  might  have  driven  against  the 
hatchet.  Halward  would  have  split  it  open, 
it's  likely,  and  who  knows  what  he  might  have 
eased  you  of?     A  lot  of  wind." 

"Such  talk  as  that  maddens  me,"  said  Og- 
mund.  "I  wish  you  would  have  done  with  it. 
It  becomes  you  not  at  all,  and  puts  me  out." 

"That's  a  service  I  can  do  you,"  said  Gerda. 
"You  need  something  of  the  kind." 

"Woman,"  said  Ogmund,  "I  am  meditat- 
ing my  revenge." 


28  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Yes,"  said  she,  "and  I  have  a  hen  sitting 
on  a  chalk  tgg.     She's  meditating  also." 

However,  she  did  her  duty  by  him,  and  as 
he  got  stronger  she  did  more.  As  she  said: 
"It  pleases  him,  and  is  nothing  to  me." 

Wigfus  came  to  see  him  now  and  then,  and 
told  him  what  had  happened.  He  said  that 
Earl  Haakon  held  Halward  to  have  been 
justified  in  what  he  had  done,  and  that  Hal- 
ward  himself  was  content  for  the  moment. 
"There  is  plenty  more  smiting  in  my  ax," 
Halward  had  said,  "and  if  Ogmund  wants 
any  more  he  knows  now  how  to  get  it,  and 
where." 

Ogmund,  brooding  over  the  fire,  swung  his 
foot  violently  as  he  heard,  but  said  nothing. 
He  complained  of  pains  in  the  head,  and 
dreams  at  night.     Gerda  scorned  him. 

Wigfus  went  on  to  say  that  he  himself  had 
taken  Halward's  deed  very  much  awry.  He 
had  challenged  Halward  to  a  battle,  and  in- 
tended to  slay  him  in  that  wise,  or  otherwise, 


HOW  OGMUND  DINT  DID  NOTHING      29 

but  the  earl  had  forbidden  battle,  and  had 
had  a  watch  set  over  him,  so  that  he  could  not 
get  away.  He  did  not  then  say  what  was  in 
his  mind  to  say,  that  he  expected  Ogmund 
to  take  vengeance  on  his  own  account,  be- 
cause the  man  was  too  ill  to  hear  it. 

But  in  the  spring,  when  Ogmund  was 
about  again  and  seemingly  as  well  as  ever  he 
had  been,  except  for  the  dint  in  his  skull, 
Wigfus  waited  for  him,  to  see  what  he  would 
do.  Ogmund  went  about  his  affairs,  and  had 
everybody  in  the  haven  laughing  at  him,  and 
cracking  their  jokes  at  his  dunted  head. 
Some  said  that  a  seabird  had  made  a  nest  for 
herself  there,  some  brought  eggs  from  the 
rocks  to  put  under  her.  A  man  wished  Og- 
mund to  keep  it  filled  with  water,  and  prom- 
ised him  goldfish  from  his  next  voyage  to  the 
South.  Every  one  called  him  Ogmund  Dint, 
even  the  boys  who  played  about  on  the  quay- 
side. But  Ogmund  managed  to  be  very  busy, 
and  pretended  that  they  were  not  talking  of 


30  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

him.  Whenever  he  met  Halward  in  the 
course  of  business  he  looked  sternly  at  him, 
but  without  greeting.  He  considered  that 
the  dignified  way  to  deal  with  him,  for  the 
present.  To  his  intimates  he  said  that  Hal- 
ward  had  taken  him  unawares  and  dealt  a 
foul  blow.  "But  there's  a  time  for  all 
things,"  he  would  conclude;  "and  so  he  will 
learn  for  himself  one  fine  day."  Men  looked 
at  each  other  at  such  talk. 

Wigfus  was  now  at  him,  insisting  upon  his 
taking  vengeance.  He  said  he  would  help 
him  in  every  way,  risking  outlawry  in  the  act, 
for  certainly  the  earl  would  resent  it.  But 
Ogmund  looked  very  thoughtful,  and  one  day 
said  fairly  that  he  did  not  see  his  way. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?"  said  Wigfus, 
taken  aback. 

''We  may  easily  do  wrong,  I  believe,"  Og- 
mund said,  "and  add  wrong  to  wrong  until 
you  have  a  regular  mixen  of  wrong  at  our 
house-door.     But    is    that    good    sense?     I 


HOW  OGMUND  DINT  DID  NOTHING      31 

don't  think  so.  Now,  to  my  thinking,  I  was 
as  much  in  the  wrong  as  Halward  was.  I  am 
a  proud  man,  and  as  quick  to  fire  as  touch- 
wood. Everybody  knows  it  who  knows  me. 
If  I  met  Halward  haughtily  I  am  sure  there's 
no  wonder.  We  can't  help  our  natures.  We 
didn't  make  ourselves.  Now  that  being  so, 
what  else  could  come  of  it  ?  I  ask  you.  The 
man  being  what  he  was,  a  common  fellow, 
took  it  amiss,  and  struck  me  a  foul  blow  in 
the  half  dusk."  He  rubbed  his  hands  to- 
gether, then  folded  his  arms  over  his  chest. 
"That's  the  way  of  the  vile.  They  do  vilely, 
and  the  wise  man  lets  them  be,  and  the  proud 
man  scorns  them.  But  there  is  another 
thing,  which  settles  me  in  my  opinion,  and  I 
will  tell  you  what  it  is.  This  man  Halward  is 
befriended  by  the  earl ;  and  here  are  you,  my 
friend,  my  kinsman,  my  foster-brother,  in  the 
power  of  the  same  great  man.  Your  father 
is  my  foster-father,  to  whom  I  owe  duty, 
gratitude,  faith  and  service.     It  would  be  a 


5a  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

strange  way  of  paying  Glum  my  scot  and 
lot  if  I  embroiled  his  son  with  an  earl,  and  got 
him  robbed  of  life  or  member  in  my  quarrel. 
No,  no.  My  fingers  itch  to  be  at  him;  I  lay 
hands  on  myself;  I  tell  you  I  have  to  run 
sometimes  lest  I  should  fly  at  the  dog's 
throat.  He  knows  it,  too.  You  can  see  that 
by  the  way  he  looks  at  me — all  ways  at  once. 
But  I  will  not  suffer  harm  to  come  to  my  fos- 
terer's son — and  there's  an  end  of  it." 

At  this  speech  Wigfus  grew  very  red,  and 
clenched  his  two  fists. 

"It  is  a  strange  way  you  have  of  doing 
service  to  Battle-Glum.  And  you  will  get  no 
thanks  from  me  for  being  more  careful  of 
my  body  than  I  am  myself.  If  you  are  not 
mad,  you  are  something  which  I  don't  care  to 
name.  Whatever  I  may  think  of  your  head 
with  a  hole  in  it  I  have  little  doubt  about  your 
heart.  You  have  a  hare's  heart,  my  man — 
and  there's  no  driving  a  hare  to  meet  a  hound. 
And  I  will  trouble  you  to  talk  less  about  our 


HOW  OGMUND  DINT  DID  NOTHING      33 

kinship  than  you  please  to  do  at  present. 
You  had  a  father  as  well  as  a  mother,  and  he 
was  not  of  our  blood.  Now  you  may  do  as 
you  please;  but  I  should  not  advise  you  to  hold 
these  speeches  with  my  father.  You  shall 
hold  no  more  of  them  with  me." 

With  that  he  walked  off,  leaving  Ogmund 
to  explain  to  Gerda  that  it  was  no  use  rea- 
soning with  an  angry  man. 

"That's  the  way  of  it,"  he  said.  "You  try 
to  do  a  man  a  service,  and  he  reviles  you  for 
it." 

Gerda  bit  her  lip;  and  at  last  she  said: 
"You  make  me  ashamed  that  I  am  a  woman. 
God  knows  what  sons  you  may  have  given 
me. 

Ogmund  boxed  her  ears ;  but  she  said  that 
he  should  give  her  no  more  sons,  and  she 
meant  it. 

But  Ogmund,  whatever  else  may  be  said 
about  him,  was  a  good  chapman.     He  bustled 


S4  PREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

along  with  his  affairs,  made  a  great  deal  of 
money,  and  sailed  away,  toward  midsummer, 
for  Iceland.  He  came  prosperously  into 
Eyefirth,  and  when  he  had  settled  his  business 
with  the  ship  he  rode  by  the  dales  into 
Thwartwaterdale,  to  stay  with  his  foster- 
father  Glum.  Now  Glum  had  had  news  of 
the  coming  of  the  ship,  and  was  told  some- 
thing about  the  affray  with  Halward.  He 
said  very  little,  but  thought  very  much.  Og- 
mund  had  a  short  welcome,  but  took  no  notice 
of  it.  He  was  so  prosperous,  he  had  such  a 
store  of  good  clothes  that  he  felt  that  all  was 
well,  when  it  was  by  no  means  so.  He  began 
to  take  a  great  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  coun- 
try-side, gave  it  out  that  Glum  was  getting  old 
and  wanted  to  be  quiet;  that  he  had  no  one 
to  look  to  but  Ogmund ;  in  short,  that  all  mat- 
ters hitherto  referred  to  Glum's  arbitrament 
were  now  for  his  handling — and  so  on,  and 
so  on.  He  had  much  to  say  about  the  man- 
agement of  the  household ;  in  fact,  he  strutted, 


HOW  OGMUND  DINT  DID  NOTHING      35 

and  clapped  his  wings,  and  puffed  out  his 
wattles  very  finely. 

For  a  long  while  Glum,  who  certainly  was 
old,  would  not  speak  to  him ;  but  at  last  he  did. 

He  then  said,  "You  had  better  know  what 
I  think  of  you,  and  maybe  I  had  better  have 
told  you  sooner.  I  think  that  all  this  strut- 
ting and  crowing  becomes  you  sadly.  You 
have  had  my  name  in  the  dust,  and  proved 
yourself  a  poltroon,  if  not  worse.  A  man 
may  be  a  craven,  but  if  he  holds  himself 
bravely  when  there  is  nobody  in  the  way,  then 
he  is  a  fool  as  well.  Now  for  the  disgrace 
you  have  brought  upon  me  I  desire  never  to 
see  you  again." 

Ogmund  began  at  once  with  his  excuse. 
''But  look  at  this,"  he  said.  ''How  could  I 
bring  your  own  son  into  danger  on  my  ac- 
count? What  is  my  revenge  compared  to 
such  a  life  as  his?" 

"What  the  mischief  had  you  to  do  with 
that?"  said  Glum.     "And  how  the  mischief 


S6  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

did  it  concern  you,  if  he  had  no  concern  about 
it  himself?  Do  you  think  all  men  are  such 
rats  as  you  are?  Don't  you  know  that  I 
would  have  seen  the  pair  of  you  dead  with 
gladness  if  I  knew  that  you  had  died  like  men? 
Vex  me  no  more,  but  let  me  be  rid  of  you." 

Then  Ogmund  began  to  plead  in  earnest, 
but  Glum  would  hardly  listen  to  him.  He 
cut  him  short  by  saying,  "It  comes  to  this, 
Ogmund.  Either  you  are  a  man  of  long- 
mindedness  and  caution — and  why  you  took 
such  a  high  hand  with  Halward  at  first  if  you 
are  not,  that  beats  me — or  you  are  a  bag  of 
silly  vapor,  a  bladder  of  dry  peasen.  I  be- 
lieve myself  that  you  are  a  cur,  and  am  forced 
to  remind  you  that  you  come  of  base  blood. 
A  thrall  deals  like  a  thrall,  they  say — and  so 
I  say.  But  you  shall  not  stay  here  any 
longer." 

And  Ogmund  must  needs  go.  He  went 
away  to  his  father  in  the  North,  and  there  he 
was  for  two  years  or  more. 


Ill 

Of  King  Olaf  Trygvasson  ;  and  of  Sigurd 
Helming  and  Gunnar,  His  Brother 

TAURING  those  years,  while  Ogmund  was 
^-^  faring  prosperously  with  his  father  and 
was  thinking  of  marrying  a  girl  of  those 
parts,  misfortune  overtook  Earl  Haakon,  who 
fell  out  with  some  of  his  sworn  friends,  be- 
came suspicious  of  others,  and  at  last  took 
to  his  bed  with  a  troublesome  complaint,  and 
died  in  it,  but  not  of  the  complaint.  He  had 
a  servant  called  Kark,  whom  he  trusted  in- 
ordinately, and  used  to  have  him  to  sleep  in 
his  chamber  at  the  foot  of  his  bed.  The  earl 
had  bad  dreams  and  used  to  throw  himself 
about  and  cry  out  against  his  enemies.  One 
night  he  had  a  very  bad  dream,  and  sat  up 
in  bed,  staring  at  the  wall  and  screaming, 

37 


38  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"They  are  coming,  they  are  coming,  they  are 
here !"  Kark  sprang  up  in  a  fright  and  with 
a  sword  in  his  hand  slashed  about  him.  He 
slashed  the  earl  in  the  neck ;  and  that  was  his 
death-blow.  The  deed  was  done,  and  by  mis- 
adventure, but  being  done,  Kark  thought  he 
might  as  well  make  profit  of  it.  So  he  cut 
off  Earl  Haakon's  head  and  put  it  in  a  bag. 
Then  he  carried  it  with  all  speed  over  the 
mountains  to  King  Olaf  Tryg\'asson,  who  he 
knew  would  be  chosen  King  of  Norway,  as 
his  right  was.  That  was  the  end  of  the  earl, 
who  was  a  great  man.  But  his  death  made 
way  for  a  greater. 

King  Olaf  was  still  a  youngish  man  when 
the  Thing  chose  him.  He  may  have  been 
thirty  years  old,  and  the  wife  he  had  was 
his  second,  if  not  third.  He  was  a  great- 
grandson  of  King  Harold  Fairhair,  and  had 
been  bred  up  in  Russia,  then  in  Vendland, 
which  is  the  country  round  about  the  Vistula ; 
then  he  went  viking  and  did  great  things  in 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  39 

Orkney,  in  Iceland  and  in  England  also.  He 
sailed  to  Scilly  at  one  time,  and  there  he  was 
baptized  and  became  a  Christian. 

The  way  of  it  was  this:  He  heard  tell  of 
a  prophet  in  those  islands,  who  knew  every- 
thing that  was  going  to  happen,  and  deter- 
mined to  see  what  the  man  could  do.  So  he 
sent  a  fine  man  of  his  out  to  visit  him,  dressed 
in  the  best  clothes  that  he  had,  rings,  chains 
and  I  don't  know  what  else. 

"Now,"  he  said,  ''go  to  the  prophet,  and 
say  you  are  a  king.  Ask  him  what  he  has  to 
tell  you,  and  report  it  all  to  me." 

The  man  went  as  he  was  bid,  found  the 
prophet  and  said,  ''Here  is  a  king  come  to 
visit  you  and  hear  what  you  have  to  say." 

The  prophet,  who  was  old,  and  white,  and 
had  a  loose,  wrinkled  skin  and  remarkable 
finger-nails,  like  a  bird's  claws,  plucked  at  the 
roots  of  his  beard. 

"You  are  not  a  king,"  he  said,  "but  I  ad- 
vise you  to  be  faithful  to  the  man  who  is  one, 


40  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

and  sent  you  here.     I  have  nothing  to  tell 
you,  and  if  I  had  I  should  not  tell  it.     Go 

away." 

There  was  Httle  else  to  do!  indeed,  there 
was  nothing  else.  When  Olaf  heard  the 
story,  he  said,  "This  is  certainly  a  prophet. 
I  will  go  to  see  him." 

Olaf  was  a  very  noticeable  man,  very  tall 
and  broad,  with  a  golden  beard;  he  was  high- 
colored    and    had    bright    blue    eyes.     The 
prophet  was  sitting  in  the  mouth  of  his  cave, 
which  he  had  swept  out  and  put  in  order. 
When  he  saw  Olaf  he  bowed  until  his  head 
was  level  with  his  knees.     Olaf  sat  down  be- 
side him,  and  they  had  a  long  conversation. 
The  prophet  presently  began  to  prophesy. 
He  said:     "You  will  become  a  notable  king 
in  a  country  which  is  yours,  though  you  have 
never  seen  it.     And  you  will  be  a  Christian 
king  and  cause  all  your  people  to  become  so 
before  the  end.     And  in  case  you  doubt  what 
I  say,  as  you  may  easily  do,  listen  to  this 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  41 

token.  When  you  take  to  your  ships  again, 
all  of  you,  there  will  be  a  plot  against  you, 
and  a  rising  by  night.  Then  there  will  be  a 
battle — ^but  on  land;  and  you  will  lose  men, 
and  be  wounded.  They  will  carry  you  on  a 
shield  to  your  ship,  and  in  seven  days  you  will 
be  well.  The  first  thing  you  will  do  will  be 
to  seek  out  a  bishop  hereabouts,  and  go  down 
into  the  water  with  him  and  be  baptized. 
After  you  all  your  men  will  go,  and  that  will 
be  the  beginning  of  Christianity  in  Norway 
and  Iceland." 

Now  the  odd  thing  about  this  tale  is  that  it 
all  fell  out  as  the  holy  man  had  foreseen. 
That  very  man  of  the  king's  whom  he  had 
warned  against  treachery  was  himself  the  be- 
ginner of  a  treacherous  attack.  There  was 
fierce  fighting,  the  king  sorely  wounded. 
He  was  carried  on  a  shield  to  the  boats,  and 
laid  aboard  his  own  long  ship.  There  he  lay 
for  seven  days,  and  on  the  seventh  he  was 


42  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

well.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  visit  the 
man  of  God. 

''You  told  me  the  truth,"  said  Olaf ;  and  the 
prophet  said: 

"That  is  why  I  am  here,  living  in  sanctity." 

Olaf  said,  "The  least  I  can  do  is  to  fulfil 
the  prophecy  which  has  so  far  fulfilled  itself. 
I  will  go  into  the  water  when  you  please." 

The  man  of  God  said,  "The  sooner  the  bet- 
ter. You  will  find  the  bishop  very  ready  for 
you." 

"I  will  send  for  him,"  King  Olaf  said, 
"but  you  shall  tell  me  something  of  the  re- 
ligion which  I  suppose  gives  you  the  powers 
you  possess." 

The  prophet  agreed  to  that.  "It  is  a  very 
good  religion  for  a  king,"  he  said,  "because 
it  may  make  him  humble-minded  before  God, 
which  he  has  no  reason  otherwise  to  be — or 
so  he  is  apt  to  think.  In  any  event  it  must 
make  his  subjects  so,  which  is  very  useful  to 
the  king." 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  43 

"Oh,  very,"  said  Olaf,  and  became  atten- 
tive to  what  the  wise  man  had  to  say. 

To  be  short  about  it,  King  Olaf  was  bap- 
tized and  all  the  men  with  him  in  the  long 
ships ;  and  soon  afterwards  he  sailed  for  Nor- 
way where,  in  the  time  of  Earl  Haakon's  sick- 
ness, he  made  a  landing  and  gathered  a  com- 
pany about  him.  \\'hen  the  earl  was  killed 
by  Kark,  his  head  was  brought  to  King  Olaf 
in  a  bag  by  the  malefactor.  Olaf  accepted 
it  as  his  due;  but  he  hanged  Kark  then  and 
there  on  a  convenient  ash-tree. 

I  said  that  the  Thing  chose  Olaf  for  king; 
and  one  of  the  first  of  his  acts  was  to  pro- 
claim that  he  chose  Christianity  for  the  re- 
ligion of  Norway,  and  willed  that  all  his  peo- 
ple should  be  baptized.  He  had  brought 
back  priests  with  him  from  Scilly,  and  a 
bishop  as  well,  so  everything  was  in  order. 

The  common  sort  gave  him  no  trouble,  for 
they  either  ran  down  into  the  water  in  herds, 
or  withdrew  themselves  to  the  mountains  and 


44  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

forests ;  but  some  of  the  great  men  were  stiff 
about  it,  and  did  not  choose  to  forsake  their 
gods.  They  debated  about  it  among  them- 
selves, and  sent  chosen  champions  to  debate 
about  it  with  the  king.  But  in  this  they  had 
mistaken  their  man.  King  Olaf  Hstened  to 
one  or  two,  and  then,  Hfting  his  large  hand, 
slammed  it  down  upon  the  board  in  front  of 
him. 

"Enough  of  this,"  he  said.  "It  may  be  a 
good  religion  or  a  bad,  but  it  is  my  own  re- 
ligion, and  I  desire  it  to  be  that  of  my  people. 
See  you  to  it,  and  let  me  have  no  more  talk, 
for  I  am  sick  of  it." 

They  went  away,  and  a  good  many  of  them 
were  baptized,  but  by  no  means  all. 

There  were  two  brothers  living  in  a  dale  of 
Drontheim — Sigurd  was  the  elder,  and  his 
brother  was  Gunnar.  Both  were  called 
Helming.  They  were  well  descended,  and 
neither  of  them  was  thirty  years  old,  though 
Sigurd  was  near  it.     He  was  married  and 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  45 

a  friend  of  the  king's.  Gunnar  was  twenty- 
six  years  old,  a  cheerful  high-colored  man 
with  a  reddish  beard,  though  his  hair  was 
much  darker,  and  might  have  been  taken  for 
black.  Sigurd  was  a  councilor,  Gunnar  was 
not,  but  he  had  been  to  sea,  and  fought  in 
Sicily,  and  as  far  as  INIicklegarth.  When  he 
was  not  voyaging  he  lived  with  his  brother. 
The  pair  were  great  friends. 

Sigurd  Helming  was  one  of  those  who  fol- 
lowed Olaf's  example,  and  went  down  into 
the  water.  When  it  was  over  and  all  his 
household  had  been  made  Christians,  he  said 
to  Gunnar,  "Now  it's  your  turn." 

Gunnar  laughed.  "Not  for  me,"  he  said. 
"I  will  go  into  the  water  when  my  time  comes, 
but  that  will  be  the  end  of  me.  I  know  too 
much  about  the  water." 

Sigurd  said,  "It's  soon  over." 

"The  sooner  the  better,"  said  Gunnar, 
"when  it  is  to  be — and  also,  the  later  the  bet- 
ter." 


46  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Sigurd  said,  'This  is  the  king's  religion." 

''Why  not?"  said  Gunnar. 

'The  king  will  be  displeased.     He  loves 
his  own  way." 

"We  all  do  that,  I  believe,"  said  Gunnar. 

"What  am  I  to  tell  him  when  he  asks  me 
of  you?"  Sigurd  asked  him. 

"Tell  him  that  I  follow  him  because  he  is  a 
man,"  said  Gunnar.  "Tell  him  that  I  will 
serve  him  all  the  better  for  following  my  own 
counsel  in  this  business  of  religion  You  will 
see  that  he  understands  me." 

"I  am  sure  he  will  not,"  said  Sigurd,  "but 
I  will  try  him." 

He  made  the  best  case  he  could,  and  King 
Olaf  heard  him  out.  When  he  had  done  the 
kine  said,  "Send  Gunnar  to  me."  So  Gun- 
nar  went  to  the  king's  house. 

King  Olaf  looked  at  him  with  his  bright 
blue  eyes  like  swords. 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  47 

"You  are  a  fighting  man,  I  hear." 

Gunnar  said  that  he  was. 

"And  now  you  will  fight  with  me." 

Gunnar  said,  "If  you  go  fighting,  King 
Olaf,  I  will  go  with  you,  if  you  will  have 
me." 

"My  religion  says  that  he  who  is  not  with 
me  is  against  me." 

Gunnar  said,  "That's  a  good  saying.  But 
I  am  with  you." 

"Not  at  all,"  said  King  Olaf,  "since  you  re- 
fuse to  take  my  religion." 

"If  I  were  to  take  your  religion  I  should  be 
a  liar,"  said  Gunnar,  "and  if  I  were  a  liar  I 
should  not  be  worth  your  while.  Better  take 
me  as  I  am." 

"I  will  take  you  as  you  are  sooner  than  not 
at  all,"  the  king  said.  "But  I  do  not  like  a 
stiff-necked  man." 

Gunnar  said,  "The  neck  of  a  man  is  part 
of  the  back  of  the  man.     If  he  is  too  supple 


48  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

in  the  neck  it  is  likely  he  will  give  in  the  back, 
and  that  at  a  time  when  stiffness  may  be  use- 
ful." 

King  Olaf  frowned.  "Beware  of  talking 
too  much.     It  makes  me  angry." 

"1  had  much  rather  not  talk  at  all,"  Gun- 
nar  said,  "but  it  would  be  ill-mannered  to  be 
glum  when  a  king  speaks  to  me." 

Olaf  said,  "Will  you  consult  with  my 
bishop,  and  hear  what  he  has  to  say?" 

'"I  will,"  said  Gunnar,  "but  you  must  let  me 
tell  you  that  I  am  not  a  scholar,  but  a  man  of 
hands.  There  will  be  more  talking.  Heat 
will  be  engendered,  and  you  will  be  angry 
again." 

Olaf  liked  Gunnar  very  well,  and  was  silent 
for  a  bit.     Then  he  said : 

"You  are  one  of  the  few  who  gainsay  me; 
yet  I  don't  feel  badly  disposed  to  you.  I 
think  you  are  a  fool ;  but  you  seem  to  know  it 
yourself." 


OF  KING  OLAF  TRYGVASSON  49 

"The  fact  is  that  I  do,"  said  Gunnar. 
"Your  bishop  alarms  me." 

''You  will  find  out  in  time  that  I  am  right 
and  you  wrong,"  said  the  king.  "Be  off 
with  you,  and  serve  me  as  well  as  you  can." 

"Have  no  fear  about  that,"  said  Gunnar, 
and  kept  to  his  own  religion,  which  was  not, 
with  him,  a  very  great  matter.  But  he  did 
not  feel  at  all  inclined  to  change  it  because 
he  was  told  to  do  so.  King  Olaf  soon  got 
over  his  vexation;  but,  as  it  will  shortly  ap- 
pear, he  kept  it  at  the  back  of  his  mind. 


IV 

Ogmund  Dint  Comes  Again  to  Norway, 

AND  Meets  Gunnar  on  the  Hard 

of  Drontheim 

IT  is  time  to  go  back  to  Ogmund  Dint,  who 
had  now  been  two  years  and  more  with 
his  father  in  the  North.  He  had  become 
something  of  a  great  man,  and  had  impressed 
himself  as  such  upon  the  people  round  about. 
But  he  was  not  easy  in  his  mind,  and  more 
than  once  or  twice  he  asked  himself,  ''What 
am  I  doing,  purfling  here  in  a  fine  coat,  when 
my  foster-father,  who  is  as  rich  as  he  is  old, 
is  perhaps  dying  in  his  bed  without  sight  or 
memory  of  me,  and  with  none  of  his  kindred 
at  hand  either?  Is  this  sense,  is  this  pious? 
Here  I  am,  for  two  years  at  a  time,  a  great 
man  and  a  great  fool." 

60 


OGMUND  DINT  MEETS  GUNNAR       51 

At  another  time  he  would  reflect  Hke  this : 
'That  was  a  very  dastardly  deed  done  upon 
me  by  Halward,  to  take  me  unawares  on  my 
own  shipboard  and  knock  a  great  dint  in  my 
head!"  He  would  feel  the  place  of  it;  there 
it  lay  under  a  growth  of  hair  as  snug  as  a 
wren's  nest  in  the  roots  of  a  tree.  ''A  foul 
blow!"  he  would  say;  and  "A  man  may  carry 
his  magnanimity  too  far,  to  overlook  such  a 
shameful  thing  for  the  sake  of  another  man, 
only  half  akin,  who  moreover  gives  you  no 
thanks."  He  shook  his  head.  "Indeed,  I  let 
off  Halward  too  lightly.  I  daresay  he  thinks 
himself  a  lucky  fellow — and  so  he  is,  by  God." 

One  train  of  thought  led  him  into  another, 
and  he  began  to  consider  his  afifairs  more 
narrowly.  "It  would  be  an  easy  thing,  and 
very  pertinent  indeed,  to  carry  this  warfare 
on  as  it  was  begun.  Two  years,  three  years, 
is  a  goodish  while.  Halward  will  not  be  ex- 
pecting such  a  long  memory  in  a  man  who 
never  did  him  any  harm.     But  insults  such  as 


52  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

he  did  to  me  stay  by  a  man,  and  the  prouder 
the  man  the  quicker  the  soil  in  which  they 
root  themselves.  I  am  astonished — I  am 
fairly  astonished — that  I  have  kept  myself 
off  him  so  long.  There  are  not  many  men  in 
Iceland  who  have  themselves  so  firmly  in 
hand — bitted  and  saddled." 

In  the  event,  without  saying  anything  of 
his  private  mind  to  anybody,  he  gave  out  that 
he  must  go  to  Norway  upon  his  affairs.  He 
furnished  a  ship  with  men  and  goods,  and 
toward  midsummer  sailed  from  Eyefirth,  and 
steered  east-northeast. 

He  had  a  fair  wind  and  came  into  Dron- 
theim  Firth  in  the  morning  light,  sailed  up  the 
firth  prosperously  and  brought  his  ship  to 
under  Nith's  holm.  There  he  cast  his  anchor, 
and  bade  them  get  out  a  boat,  though  the  day 
was  spent  and  a  cool  breeze  was  now  blowing 
off  the  land. 

*T  must  row  up  the  river  some  little  way 
and  go  into  the  town,"   he  said.     'T  have 


OGMUXD  DINT  MEETS  GUNNAR       53 

heard  something  of  trouble  in  this  country, 
and  we  must  be  sure  of  our  footing  before  we 
go  further." 

He  dressed  himself  with  splendor,  and  put 
over  him  in  particular  a  very  fine  cloak  of  two 
colors.  It  was  green  on  one  side  and  golden- 
brow^n  on  the  other.  It  had  trimmings  of 
sable-tails  which  fluttered  in.  the  breeze,  and 
over  the  back  of  it  a  dragon  worked  in  gold 
thread — a  very  magnificent  cloak.  He  took 
a  sword,  and  had  two  men  to  row  him. 

They  came  into  the  hard  with  the  last  of 
the  light. 

"Stay  you  here  for  me,"  he  said,  "and  don't 
show  yourselves.     This  is  an  urgent  affair." 

Ogmund  walked  on  the  hard,  up  and  down, 
and  felt  himself  admired  of  the  few  persons 
who  were  about.  By-and-by  he  saw  one 
coming  down  from  the  town  at  a  brisk  pace; 
a  man  of  his  own  height,  but  of  sparer  frame 
than  his  own.     He  wore  a  crimson  cloak  with 


54  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

a  hood  to  it,  and  wore  the  hood  over  his  head, 
shadowing  his  face.  The  oncomer,  when  he 
was  close  at  hand,  was  struck  by  the  splendor 
of  Ogmund's  appearance.  Ogmund  saw  that 
and  saluted  him.  Gunnar  Helming,  for  that 
was  the  man  in  the  hood,  returned  the  greet- 
ing, and  stopped  his  quick  step. 

"You  are  the  master  of  that  boat,  I  take 
it?"  said  Gunnar.  "A  stranger  in  this 
water?" 

"Not  so  much  as  that,"  replied  Ogmund. 
"I  come  now  and  again  to  see  my  friends 
here.  But  I  am  from  Iceland  myself.  My 
name  is  Ogmund." 

Gunnar  looked  at  him.  "Are  you  Ogmund 
Dint?" 

Ogmund  said,  "Some  men  call  me  that,  and 
others  who  know  me  better  call  me  Ogmund 
Ravensson.  But  that  matters  little  to  me. 
Now  what  might  your  name  be,  in  fair  re- 
turn?" 

Gunnar  told  him — but  could  not  keep  either 


OGMUND  DINT  MEETS  GUNNAR       55 

eyes  or  tongue  from  Ogmund's  wonderful 
cloak. 

"Gunnar  is  my  name,"  he  said,  ''and  some 
call  me  Gunnar  Helming,  and  some  Gunnar 
Half-and-Half." 

''What  do  they  call  you  that  for  ?" 

"Because  I  take  pleasure  in  wearing  clothes 
like  that  fine  cloak  of  yours,"  said  Gunnar. 

"Oh,"  said  Ogmund,  "my  cloak!  It  is  an 
ordinary  cloak,  I  believe." 

"I,  too,  like  to  believe  that,"  said  Gun- 
nar. 

Then  Ogmund  asked  him  for  news  of  the 
country,  "since  it  is  some  years  now  since  I 
was  here." 

Gunnar  told  him  that  they  had  news  which 
they  thought  a  good  deal  of.  "Earl  Haakon 
is  dead,  and  we  now  have  a  very  notable  king, 
whose  name  is  Olaf  Trygvasson.  He  is  a 
Christian,  and  drives  all  men,  and  women, 
too,  into  the  water,  to  make  Christians  also 
of  them." 


66  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Ogmund  said  this  was  greatness.  "And 
do  the  people  take  kindly  to  the  water?" 

Gunnar  said  that  they  did. 

Then  Ogmund  said,  "And  my  friend  Hal- 
ward,  how  is  he?" 

"Oh,  he!"  said  Gunnar.  "I  saw  him  just 
now." 

"What,  here?"  says  Ogmund. 

"Yes,"  said  Gunnar,  "he  is  here  sure 
enough.  He  is  as  good  friends  with  King 
Olaf  as  ever  he  was  with  Earl  Haakon,  and 
yet  he  is  not  the  man  he  was  when  he  gave 
you  your  name." 

"How  is  that  then?"  Ogmund  wanted  to 
know. 

"Why,"  Gunnar  told  him,  "one  of  the  last 
battles  fought  by  Haakon  was  at  Yomswick- 
ing;  and  in  that  battle  Halward  got  a  great 
whang  by  the  ear,  and  rather  below  it.  It 
cut  the  sinew  of  his  neck,  and  made  a  bad 
healing.  The  good  man  now  carries  his 
head  on  one  side,  and  will  do  it  until  his 


OGMUND  DINT  MEETS  GUNNAR       57 

death-day.  And  yet  he  is  as  well  as  ever  he 
was  otherwise,  and  in  high  favor  with  the 
king." 

Ogmund  thanked  him  for  all  this  news ;  but 
saw  how  preoccupied  Gunnar  was,  and  how 
his  eyes  dwelt  upon  his  cloak. 

"You  are  pleased  to  admire  my  cloak,"  he 
said.  ''And  yet  I  assure  you  it  is  by  no  means 
the  best  I  have." 

"I  can  believe  it,"  said  Gunnar,  "but  for  my 
part  I  have  never  seen  one  so  fine  since  I  left 
the  great  city  of  Micklegarth.  Now  if  I 
asked  you  to  sell  it  to  me,  Ogmund,  would 
you  take  it  amiss  ?" 

Ogmund  thought  for  a  while. 

"I  will  not  sell  it  to  you,"  he  said,  "but  I 
will  ask  you  to  accept  it  from  me.  It  would 
be  a  pleasure  to  me  to  please  you." 

Gunnar  opened  his  eyes.  They  were  very 
bright. 

"Give  it  to  me  by  all  means,"  he  said,  "and 
prosper  in  all  your  undertakings!     But  it  is 


58  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

too  much  for  you  to  do — and  I  am  rather 
ashamed." 

''By  no  means,"  said  Ogmund  Dint,  *'by  no 
manner  of  means.  Yet  if  it  will  set  your 
mind  at  ease,  and  as  the  wind  blows  shrewdly 
off  the  mountains,  perhaps  we  may  make  an 
exchange.     How  would  that  suit  you  ?" 

"Excellently,"  said  Gunnar,  "but  my  old 
cloak  is  dross  for  your  gold." 

"It  looks  a  serviceable  garment,"  said  Og- 
mund.    "It  will  keep  the  weather  away." 

There  and  then  they  exchanged.  Ogmund 
put  on  the  crimson  cloak,  and  pulled  the  hood 
up  over  his  head;  Gunnar  put  on  his  bargain 
and  was  as  pleased  as  a  boy  with  a  new  top. 

"Now  indeed  we  shall  see  something,"  said 
Gunnar. 

"Yes,  indeed,"  said  Ogmund,  and  saluted 
him. 

Gunnar  went  his  ways  with  his  brisk  step, 
and  Ogmund  turned  back  to  his  boat. 

"I  shan't  be  long  ^one,"  he  said.     "Stand 


OGMUND  DINT  MEETS  GUNNAR      59 

by  your  oars,  and  be  ready  the  moment  I  want 
you." 

Then  he  went  into  the  town  with  long 
strides,  and  walked  briskly,  swinging  one 
arm,  as  he  had  observed  Gunnar  do  coming 
down. 


V 

Ogmund  Dint  Satisfies  Himself,  and 
Sails  Home 

^GMUND  walked  briskly  into  the  street, 
looking  for  Halward.  At  first  he  could 
not  find  him,  but  that  was  because  he  looked 
in  the  wrong  places.  Then,  after  a  time,  he 
turned  into  a  lane  or  by-way  which  led  to  a 
creek,  with  a  row  of  buildings  facing  it,  and 
willow  trees  in  front  of  them,  between  them 
and  the  water.  One  of  these  buildings  was 
an  inn,  and  in  the  court  of  that  inn  there  was 
a  company  of  men  washing  their  hands  be- 
fore supper.  The  tallest  of  them,  by  far, 
was  Halward,  and  if  Ogmund  had  not  remem- 
bered him  very  well  without  it,  he  would  have 
known  him  by  the  twist  in  his  neck,  which 
made  him  poke  his  head  out  like  a  stork  when 

60 


OGMUND  DINT  SATISFIES  HIMSELF     61 

she  is  stretching  hers  forward  to  flap  her 
wings.  It  was  now  dusk,  and  a  lamp  was 
alight  in  the  court  that  men  might  see  what 
they  were  about. 

Ogmund  with  the  hood  well  forward  over 
his  face  stepped  into  the  court.  Before  him 
was  Halward,  standing  with  his  legs  apart. 
He  was  rubbing  the  soapsuds  into  one  arm 
with  the  other  hand.  His  face  and  beard 
were  wet  with  rinsing.  He  saw  him  who 
entered  and  hailed  him  with  a  "God  save  thee, 
Gunnar." 

But  Ogmund  laid  a  finger  on  his  lip  and 
beckoned  him  to  come  apart  with  an  air  of 
having  a  secret  to  tell.  Having  done  that,  he 
stepped  out  of  the  court  until  Halward  should 
follow  him. 

Halward  came  after  him  with  a  "What's  in 
the  wind  then  ?"  Ogmund  drew  into  a  door- 
way, and  got  his  sword  free  of  his  cloak. 
The  moment  Halward  came  within  range  of 
him  he  stepped  out  to  meet  him  and  hewed  at 


62  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

his  neck.  It  was  Halward's  death-blow. 
He  shook  and  groaned  thickly,  and  then  fell. 
His  head  was  nearly  off. 

Ogmund  went  away  with  all  speed,  and  was 
not  long  coming  to  the  quay  where  he  had 
left  his  boat.  He  found  his  men  waiting  for 
him,  and  jumped  into  the  boat. 

"Pull  with  a  will,"  he  said;  "we  will  be  out 
of  this.  There's  war  in  this  country.  Up 
the  street  I  saw  men  fighting.  There  will  be 
no  trading  here." 

"What,"  said  one  of  them,  "are  we  to  see 
nothing  of  the  sport,  master?  That  will  be 
a  poor  tale  to  take  home  with  us." 

"We  are  here  to  trade,  not  to  go  to  peep- 
shows,"  said  Ogmund  testily.  "Do  you  as  I 
bid.  There  is  a  wind  coming  strong  off  the 
land  which  will  hold  the  night  out.  By  morn- 
ing light  we  shall  be  in  the  open  sea.  Fortu- 
nate for  us  that  it  is  so." 

The  men  did  as  they  were  bid.  One  of 
them  said,  "It's  plain  you  have  been  in  the 


OGMUND  DINT  SATISFIES  HIMSELF      63 

fray.  You  have  changed  cloaks  with  a  foe, 
I  see,  and  lost  by  the  bargain.  That  is  bad 
trading  for  such  a  keen  merchant." 

"Pull,  man,  pull,  and  hold  your  tongue," 
said  Ogmund  Dint. 

They  reached  the  ship  and  he  swung  him- 
self aboard.  Then  while  the  crew  were  busy 
hauling  on  the  tackle  he  got  himself  a  great 
stone  from  the  ballast.  This  he  rolled  into 
the  hood  of  Gunnar's  cloak,  and  then  cast  the 
thing  into  the  water.  As  he  saw  the  waves 
lap  over  the  hole  he  had  made,  he  took  a  long 
breath. 

All  went  well  with  him ;  as  he  had  thought, 
he  was  out  at  sea  by  the  morning.  Even 
then  his  luck  held,  with  a  quarter  wind  which 
carried  him  to  Eyefirth.  People  were  sur- 
prised to  see  him,  but  he  made  a  very  good 
tale  of  it,  and  spoke  at  length  about  the  sad 
state  of  things  in  Norway,  the  risks,  the 
frays,  the  bloodshed  in  the  streets,  burnings, 


64  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

ravishings,  cutthroats,  men  hanging  by  the 
thumbs  and  so  on.  He  did  not  forget  to 
work  into  it  much  about  the  killing  of  Earl 
Haakon,  and  King  Olaf's  baptizings.  After 
a  bit  he  rode  south  to  Thwartvvater  to  see  his 
foster-father  Battle-Glum. 

Glum  joined  his  shaggy  brows  and  blinked 
hard  when  he  saw  him.  Ogmund  said  he 
brought  him  news  which  he  would  be  pleased 
to  hear. 

"I  have  avenged  the  insult  done  me  by  Hal- 
ward  the  Strong,  and  though  I  have  been  slow 
about  it  I  have  done  it  surely.  He  will  insult 
no  man  hereafter." 

"What,"  said  Glum,  "have  you  slain  Hal- 
ward?" 

"I  have,"  said  Ogmund. 

"And  yourself  scatheless  ?" 

"I  am." 

"That  was  a  good  battle  then?" 


OGMUND  DINT  SATISFIES  HIMSELF      65 

"It  was.  They  were  twelve  to  our  three; 
but  we  thought  httle  of  it  at  the  time.  In  hot 
blood  such  things  are  not  memorable." 

*'Well,"  said  Glum,  "you  have  done  now  as 
I  hoped  it  might  have  been  at  first.  Did  my 
son  Wigf us  help  you  ?" 

"He  did  not." 

Glum  was  thoughtful.  "He  will  be  sorry 
not  to  have  been  in  with  you." 

Ogmund  said  that  he  had  not  seen  Wig- 
fus  at  all,  and  rather  thought  that  he  was  at 
sea;  "Or  he  would  surely  have  stood  in  with 
me." 

"To  be  sure  he  would,"  said  Glum. 

Now  Ogmund  was  taken  into  favor  again, 
and  stayed  with  Battle-Glum  all  the  winter. 


VI 
The  Hue-and-Cry  for  Halward  Neck 

AFTER  a  bit  somebody  in  the  inn  yard 
said,  "Let  us  go  in  to  supper;"  and 
then  another : 

"Where  is  Halward  and  what  is  he  do- 
ing? 

A  man  said,  "He  is  outside  talking  with 
Gunnar  Helming." 

Then  another:  "Let  us  have  Gunnar  in 
to  sup  with  us.     He  is  the  best  company." 

They  all  agreed  to  that. 

After  a  time  of  more  waiting  a  man  went 
out  of  the  yard  to  see  where  Halward  and 
Gunnar  were,  and  came  back  with  a  serious 
face. 

"Come  out  with  me,"  he  said.  "Here's  a 
bad  affair." 

66 


HUE-AND-CRY  FOR  HALWARD  NECK     6T 

They  all  tumbled  out  together  with  the 
lamp,  and  there  found  Halward  dead  in  his 
blood.     He  was  stiffening  already. 

Then,  after  silence,  all  began  to  talk  at 
once.  Nobody  could  understand  the  slaying, 
nobody  could  doubt  who  had  done  it,  for 
everybody  had  seen  Gunnar  come  into  the 
yard,  or  the  few  who  had  not  took  it  from 
the  many  who  had.  Not  a  word  of  doubt 
was  raised  about  it. 

As  Halward  was  a  friend  of  the  king's 
certainly  the  king  must  have  the  news;  but 
all  hung  back  from  the  errand  because  all  men 
liked  Gunnar.  The  end  of  it  was  that,  hav- 
ing brought  the  body  into  the  yard  and  cov- 
ered it  with  a  carpet,  they  went  in  to  supper 
and  ate  and  drank  thoughtfully  and  in  silence. 

While  they  were  sitting  at  their  drink  in 
came  Sigurd  Helming  to  see  if  Gunnar  were 
there.  He  asked  for  him  and  could  not  but 
notice  how  his  question  was  received.     Re- 


6^  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

peating  it,  he  had  no  answer  at  all.  A  third 
time  he  asked  it,  and  of  one  man  by  name. 
He  was  answered  that  Gunnar  had  been 
there,  but  had  spoken  to  nobody. 

"That  is  not  like  Gunnar,"  Sigurd  said. 
''What  did  he  do  when  he  came  in  ?" 

"He  beckoned  to  one  of  us,  and  went  out 
again." 

"And  to  which  of  you  did  he  beckon?" 

"It  was  to  Halward  Neck." 

''And  where  is  Halward  Neck?" 

Then  there  was  a  silence,  and  after  that  an- 
other man,  very  red  in  the  face  and  with 
gleaming  eyes,  spoke  between  his  teeth. 

"I  will  show  you  where  Halward  Neck  is," 
he  said.  "Come  with  me."  He  led  him  out 
into  the  yard,  while  the  rest  crowded  at  the 
door. 

He  showed  him  the  dead  man;  he  held  the 
lamp  close  to  his  face. 

"Who  did  this?"  said  Sigurd.  Then,  be- 
ginning with  a  low  murmur,  all  voices  rose 


HUE-AND-CRY  FOR  HALWARD  NECK      G9 

and  the  name  of  Gunnar  was  cried  in  his  ears. 
Sigurd  lifted  his  head,  and  all  were  silent. 

"I  don't  believe  it,"  he  said,  "but  somebody 
must  tell  the  king  of  it." 

They  went  back  into  the  house  and  shut 
the  doors.  Sigurd  was  told  what  every  one 
knew,  or  thought  that  he  knew.  One  man 
had  seen  Gunnar  go  down  to  the  hard  in  his 
cloak  and  hood;  half-a-dozen  had  seen  him 
come  into  the  yard  afterwards ;  three  or  four 
had  heard  Halward  greet  him ;  some  had  seen 
the  beckoning,  others  had  seen  Halward  fol- 
low him  out.  Then  they  had  gone  out  to  look 
for  them,  and  there  found  Halward  slain. 

Sigurd  said,  **It  looks  very  black  against 
Gunnar,  but  I  cannot  believe  it.  Yet  I  know 
that  the  king  must  be  told,  and  that  he  will 
be  ready  to  think  the  worst  of  my  brother  be- 
cause he  has  been  so  stiff  against  his  religion. 
Now  my  thought  at  first  was  that  I  would 
tell  him  myself,  since  none  of  you  seemed 
ready  to  go  with  the  news — but  see  here,  my 


70  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

friends,  you  would  not  have  me  bear  witness 
against  my  own  brother  ?" 

They  all  agreed  to  that. 

Then  he  said,  'T  will  ask  one  or  several  of 
you  to  tell  the  king  in  the  morning.  It  is  late 
now,  and  he  will  not  expect  you  to  disturb 
him  at  this  hour  of  the  night.  Yet  I  tell  you 
fairly  that  I  myself  shall  go  to  find  Gunnar 
and  warn  him  of  what  is  astir  against  him. 
If  I  think,  when  I  see  him,  that  he  is  the 
guilty  man,  it  may  be  that  I  shall  go  with  you 
to  King  Olaf.  If  I  leave  him  still  in  the  mind 
I  am  in  now,  then  I  shall  not  testify  against 
him." 

They  all  said,  "No,  no."  They  said  that 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  matter,  and  that  his 
name  need  not  be  in  the  business  at  all. 

Sigurd  said,  "The  king  will  speak  to  me 
about  it,  I  know.  But  I  shall  have  time  for 
what  I  want  to  do."  Then  he  left  them  sit- 
ting at  their  drink,  and  went  to  find  Gun- 
nar. 


HUE-AND-CRY  FOR  HALWARD  NECK      71 

Now,  first,  I  will  deal  with  the  embassy 
to  the  king,  and  then  with  what  happened 
when  Sigurd  saw  his  brother.  Olaf  was  in 
a  great  taking.  He  grew  red  and  thumped 
the  table  with  his  fist. 

*'This  is  what  comes  of  clemency.  That 
rascal  refused  my  religion  and  I  let  him  go. 
He  vowed  that  he  would  serve  me  and  I  be- 
lieved him,  like  a  fool.  This  is  how  it  is 
brought  back  to  me,  sevenfold  into  my  bosom. 
Now  do  you  go  and  apprehend  Gunnar,  and 
hang  him  up  on  a  tree.  Don't  let  me  see  him, 
for  I  am  in  such  a  rage  that  I  should  insult 
him  in  his  chains.  Hang  him  out  of  hand, 
and  let  us  get  on  with  our  affairs." 

That  was  what  the  king  said,  and  they  left 
him  with  heavy  hearts.  But  Gunnar  was  not 
hanged  because  he  was  not  at  home  when 
they  went  to  fetch  him. 

The  very  night  of  the  slaying,  Sigurd  came 
to  him.  He  went  directly  to  him  from  the 
inn  where  Halward  lay  dead. 


72  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Gunnar,"  he  said,  "what  was  the  grief  be- 
tween you  and  Halward  that  you  deal  him  a 
dog's  death?" 

Gunnar  gaped  at  him.  "Halward?  Is 
Halward  dead  ?     Who  did  that  ?" 

Sigurd  said,  "They  say  that  you  did  it  this 
very  evening  at  the  inn  on  Markfleet." 

Gunnar  answered  him,  "That  be  far  from 
me."     But  he  had  no  more  to  say. 

"Well,"  said  Sigurd,  "you  say  what  I 
believe,  but  it  looks  very  black  against 
you." 

Then  he  told  him  what  the  rumors  were, 
how  he  had  been  seen  go  down  the  street,  then 
come  up  the  street,  how  he  had  shown  him- 
self in  the  yard,  said  nothing,  but  beckoned 
Halward  out ;  how  he  had  not  been  seen  again, 
and  how  Halward  had  been  found  stiff  in  his 
own  blood  in  the  street. 

Gunnar  heard  all  this  in  silence,  and  re- 
mained silent  so  long  that  Sigurd  had  to  make 
him  speak. 


HUE-AND-CRY  FOR  HALWARD  NECK      78 

"Well,  what  are  we  to  answer  them?"  he 
said. 

Gunnar  lifted  his  head  and  looked  at  him. 
''I  can  only  tell  you,"  he  said,  ''that  I  am  in- 
nocent of  this  deed." 

"Do  you  know  nothing  at  all  of  it?"  he  was 
asked. 

"Ah,"  said  Gunnar,  "that  is  where  you 
touch  me.  Now  I  must  tell  you  fairly  that  I 
can  say  nothing  more  to  you  or  anybody  at 
this  hour." 

Then  Sigurd  said,  "You  had  better  be  off. 
The  king  will  certainly  hang  you  for  it." 

Gunnar  thought.  "Yes,"  he  said,  "I  must 
go.  All  may  be  set  straight  some  day;  but 
not  by  me."  Then  Sigurd  left  him,  and  Gun- 
nar made  his  preparations. 

He  took  very  little  with  him,  for  he  knew 
that  he  must  go  far,  and  most  of  it  afoot. 
The  king's  hand  stretched  to  the  confines  of 
Norway,  and  even  in  Iceland  his  power  was 
being  felt.     Gunnar   thought  that  he  must 


74  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

travel  east — on  horseback  so  far  as  he  could 
get,  but  after  that,  he  must  cross  the  moun- 
tains and  get  down  into  Sweden.  He  took  a 
sword  and  a  sack  of  provision,  and  those  were 
all  that  he  took.  No,  there  was  one  thing 
more.  He  could  not  bring  himself  to  relin- 
quish the  fine  cloak  he  had  had  from  Ogmund 
Dint.  Besides,  if  it  were  found  when  men 
came  to  look  for  him  it  might  be  witness 
against  the  man  who  had  done  the  deed.  It 
was  against  Gunnar's  religion  to  betray  a 
man's  secret.  He  rolled  up  the  cloak  there- 
fore and  stuffed  it  into  the  saddlebag. 

Then  he  got  out  his  sorrel  mare  and  rode 
out  in  the  dusk.  He  went  east  by  a  dale 
which  he  judged  would  bring  him  soonest  out 
of  King  Olaf's  holding;  and  he  rode  all  night 
and  till  noon  the  next  day. 


VII 

GuNNAR  Crosses  the  Mountains 

IT  was  slow  going  in  the  dark,  but  the 
Sorrel  picked  up  her  feet,  and  the  road  was 
well  known  to  Gunnar.  He  had  not  much 
time  to  think,  but  found  little  to  regret  except 
Halward's  death.  He  had  liked  Halward, 
as  he  was  ready  to  like  most  men.  Never- 
theless, he  had  now  to  admit  that  he  had  little 
esteem  for  Ogmund  Dint. 

"That  was  a  dirty  trick  to  serve  a  man  who 
had  done  him  no  harm.  And  I  took  his  bait 
down  like  a  codling,  and  served  his  turn 
finely.  A  sharp  practicer  is  Ogmund  Dint, 
and  gets  by  foul  means  what  he  dare  not  try 
for  fairly."  So  he  thought  of  it — and  then 
he    said    to    himself,    justifying    the    man: 

75 


76  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"When  all's  said,  a  man  must  look  after  him- 
self. Halward  had  many  friends  to  avenge 
him;  and  if  Ogmund  had  been  caught  red- 
handed  he  was  done  for.  I  am  thinking  King 
Olaf  would  have  been  cheated  of  his  rope- 
work.  Somebody  or  other  would  have  hewn 
him  down  before  news  ever  got  to  the  Court. 
Yes,  I  don't  see  what  else  he  could  have  done 
— and  yet  I  would  not  have  done  it  myself. 
Well,  I  am  a  fine  cloak  to  the  good,  which  I 
will  keep  in  case  I  want  it  some  day  as  testi- 
mony." 

He  chuckled  over  his  great  gain,  glad  that 
he  had  brought  it  with  him,  though  he  had 
had  another  purpose  in  his  mind  when  he 
packed  it  into  his  bag.  *'Maybe  the  Swedes 
will  take  me  for  a  king's  son."  He  knew 
nothing  of  the  Swedes,  believed  to  be  a  dark 
and  savage  people,  a  people  of  forests  and 
swamps ;  but  he  must  venture  among  them  if 
he  wished  to  save  his  neck.  "Oh,  yes,  cer- 
tainly I  wish  to  save  my  neck." 


GUNNAR  CROSSES  THE  MOUNTAINS      7T 

He  found  himself  to  be  passably  happy, 
riding  under  the  stars  up  the  dales  which 
grew  ever  narrower,  and  more  intricate. 
There  was  little  cantering  ground,  and  the 
way  difficult  to  find.  Knowing  the  stars  well, 
he  steered  by  them.  Besides  that,  the  season 
was  still  fair  and  it  could  never  be  called  dark. 

He  rested  not  until  the  sun  was  warming 
the  snow  on  the  peaks  above  him,  and  then 
not  for  long.  But  he  had  to  go  very  slowly 
now,  up  the  bed  of  a  water-course  which 
he  must  cross  and  recross  half-a-dozen  times 
in  the  half-hour  to  get  tolerable  going  ground. 
The  sorrel  stretched  her  neck  and  blew 
through  her  nose.  She  was  tired  and  he 
knew  it,  and  felt  heavy  at  the  thought  that  he 
and  she  must  soon  part.  She  was  his  dearest 
possession.  He  thought  that  he  loved  her  as 
much  as  his  brother.  Both  of  them  had 
served  him  well  in  this  affair.  'Tt  was  a  gen- 
erous thing  of  Sigurd,  so  near  as  he  is  to  King 
Olaf,  to  come  and  warn  me.     He  may  get 


78  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

into  trouble  over  it.  All  depends  on  the 
king's  mood.  If  he  is  in  a  rage  he  may 
tie  Sigurd  up  and  keep  him  in  bondage  on  my 
account.  But  no!  I  trust  that  king.  He 
was  good  to  me  about  his  religion."  He 
laughed  over  the  memory  of  that,  and  looking 
up  into  the  clear  sky,  which  the  sun  was  burn- 
ing to  whiteness,  watching  the  soaring  eagles, 
marking  up  the  glittering  snowfields,  the 
herds  of  deer  stretched  out  in  thin  lines  of 
travel  like  trees  in  file,  he  felt  happy. 

The  time  came  when  he  must  send  the  mare 
home.  He  freed  her  of  saddle  and  bridle. 
He  loaded  himself  with  the  packbag,  cut  him- 
self a  birch-sapling  for  staff,  and  stood  ready. 
Then  he  kissed  Sorrel's  nose,  and  turned  her 
face  westward. 

''Home  with  thee,  dear  one,"  he  said,  ''and 
keep  thy  counsel  when  thou  art  there.  We 
shall  meet  again  if  the  luck  holds.  Neigh 
at  thy  stable  door  and  Sigurd  will  befriend 
thee.     Farewell."     He   gave    her    a    hearty 


GUNNAR  CROSSES  THE  MOUNTAINS      79 

smack  on  the  buttock,  then  held  his  arms  wide 
and  said,  "Off."  She  looked  round  at  him, 
prick-eared  and  close-eyed.  She  whinnied  to 
him,  then  turned  to  nibble  the  grass.  *'What, 
thou  wilt  not?  But,  I  tell  thee,  go.  One 
more  kiss  perhaps."  He  kissed  her  again, 
and  whispered  in  her  ear,  "Home,  my  dear." 
She  looked  forward  down  the  rocky  vale  she 
had  climbed  and  then  walked  soberly  down. 
Once  or  twice  she  stopped  and  looked  round, 
and  then  she  neighed  after  him.  "Shoo, 
mare !"  he  said.  "Shoo,  girl !"  and  opened  his 
arms.  Sorrel  went  down  the  valley  and  he 
lost  sight  of  her. 

He  turned  to  his  way,  which  asked  him 
to  cross  a  mountain  shoulder-deep  in  snow. 
That  was  heavy  going,  for  it  was  soft  in  the 
sun.  From  the  top  he  saw  his  work  before 
him,  fold  within  fold  of  snow;  brown  valley- 
bottoms,  and  over  all  the  great  ridge  of  white 
with  pines  like  scars  upon  it,  which  was  the 
boundary    between    Norway    and    Sweden. 


80  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Heavens !  What  a  job  had  he  got.  But  he 
went  on,  nothing  doubting,  and  kept  a  stout 
heart.  "A  lonely  place  to  be  hanged  in,  and 
few  trees  fit  for  it.  But  I  doubt  I  should  have 
a  fight  for  it  here." 

I  need  not  delay  over  his  journey,  which 
took  him  two  days  longer,  and  two  nights. 
By  the  time  he  had  climbed  the  great  ridge 
he  had  come  near  the  end  of  his  strength 
and  his  provisions  for  it.  Yet  he  must  go  on ; 
for  that  was  no  place  in  which  to  spend  the 
night,  a  waste  of  snow  and  a  line  of  torn  pines 
driven  everlastingly  by  a  cruel  wind.  When 
he  saw  what  was  now  in  front  of  him  and 
below,  his  heart  might  sink,  though  it  did  not. 
So  far  as  eye  could  range  all  was  forest.  It 
was  like  looking  upon  a  dark  sea,  featureless 
except  for  the  lines  of  light  and  shadow  which 
ran  over  it  when  wind  and  sun  played  to- 
gether. He  saw  no  ways,  no  clearings ;  there 
rose   no   chimney-smoke   anywhere.     Not   a 


GUNNAR  CROSSES  THE  MOUNTAINS     81 

bird  sailed  above,  not  a  wolf  grieved,  not  a 
fox  stirred.  ''And  is  that  Sweden  then? 
And  are  there  people  dwelling  in  the  dark  be- 
neath? There  are  two  worlds  there,  and 
there  might  be  dwellers  in  the  tree-tops  who 
know  nothing  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  deep, 
and  are  themselves  unknown.  How  am  I  to 
guide  myself  through  that  thicket,  and  who 
is  going  to  feed  me  or  give  me  drink?" 

Looking  into  it,  he  shivered  in  the  wind. 
"Outlandish  country,  you  must  do  better  for 
me  than  this,"  he  said.  He  had  to  traverse 
a  league  of  snow-slope  before  he  could  enter 
the  forest.  To  that  he  addressed  himself 
now,  with  a  prayer  to  all  the  Gods  in  Valhalla. 


VIII 

GUNNAR    IN    THE    FOREST    HeARS    TeLL    OF 

Frey  and  His  Wonders 

THE  course  of  the  snow-slope  brought 
Gunnar  to  rocks  and  a  precipice  from  a 
gorge  in  which  descended  a  river  of  ice.  Far 
below  him  he  heard  the  thunderous  crash  of 
water,  and  judged  that  in  following  that,  if 
it  could  be  done,  he  would  find  his  best  chance 
of  guiding  his  way  through  the  forest.  The 
river  would  join  another;  that  other  must  in 
time  reach  the  sea.  So  he  determined  to  do; 
but  it  was  easy  talking.  It  took  him  the  best 
part  of  a  day  to  get  down  the  cliff.  He  spent 
a  miserable  night  crouched  under  a  rock,  and 
started  off  again  in  the  morning  almost  fast- 
ing.    There  was  coarse  grass  now,  growing 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY   83 

wherever  there  was  hold  for  it.  In  one  of 
these  he  saw  a  white  hare  lying  flat,  and  by 
a  trick  he  knew  he  fell  his  length  upon  her  and 
secured  her.  He  had  no  fire,  and  made  what 
he  could  of  her  raw  and  sinewy  flesh.  So 
replenished,  he  went  on  his  downward  course, 
reached  the  waterfall  bathed  in  sweat,  and 
followed  it,  as  nearly  as  might  be,  down  into 
the  chill  and  silence  and  darkness  of  the  for- 
est. 

Day  and  night  were  alike  to  him  now. 
For  a  time  whose  duration  he  took  no  pains 
to  guess  at,  he  worked  his  way  downwards,  a 
more  fearful  toil,  with  more  of  peril  in  it 
than  any  he  had  spent  in  climbing  the  ridge. 
So  far,  the  forest  was  untouched  by  the  hand, 
unvisited  by  the  foot  of  man  so  far  as  he  could 
perceive.  He  saw  no  living  thing,  though 
high  above  him  he  sometimes  heard  the  bat- 
tling of  wings,  and  once  or  twice  hoarse  cries 
which  he  judged  must  come  from  the  air. 
He  listened  for  wolves  or  foxes,  but  heard 


84  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

none;  he  kept  his  eyes  aware  for  the  track  of 
roe-deer  or  bear,  but  vainly.  All  was  silent 
and  accursed.  Except  on  the  banks  of  the 
torrent  there  was  little  vegetation  to  be  seen, 
for  among  the  pine  stems  the  needles  lay  dose 
and  deep  upon  the  ground,  and  nothing  could 
live  in  such  a  soil  or  in  such  chill  and  dank  air. 
Whither  he  went,  or  how  far  he  had  come,  he 
knew  not;  for  all  his  steadiness  of  heart,  the 
conviction  turned  him  sick  that  if  he  did  not 
soon  meet  with  men  there  would  be  one  man 
less  in  the  world. 

"Better  to  have  been  hanging  on  a  green 
tree  in  the  warm  and  living  air  than  to  slowly 
fritter  away  into  corruption,  and  become 
bleached  bones  here  in  the  dark  and  cold." 
He  looked  back  with  wistfulness  to  such  a 
genial  death.  "Sigurd  would  have  piled  a 
cairn  for  me.  He  would  have  grieved  for 
me,  and  said  prayers  to  his  new  God  in  the 
king's  new  temple.  Well,  hanging  is  a  man's 
death,  as  battle  is.     But  to  fight  the  dark,  to 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY   85 

grow  weak  by  chill  and  hunger,  to  be  so 
lonely  that  not  a  raven  troubles  about  your 
dead  eyes!  This  is  a  death  for  wolves — but 
not  for  men  who  love  to  lie  snug  among  their 
fellows." 

These  were  his  thoughts  at  the  worst;  at 
the  best  he  felt  that  before  long  he  must  hit 
upon  a  sign  of  life. 

He  was  now  on  level  ground,  and  true  it 
w^as  that  he  came  at  last  upon  a  clearing.  A 
broad  green  road  ran  on  either  side  of  a  ford 
in  the  river.  Here  he  stood  and  looked  up  at 
the  blue  sky,  and  saw  how  the  sun  made  the 
tree-tops  seem  cut  out  of  gold.  He  forgot 
his  emptiness,  his  loneliness  and  dark  fore- 
bodings. "Oh,  now  I  see  that  the  sun  is  a 
God  who  loves  men!" 

As  if  that  were  true,  and  he  were  to  be  as- 
sured of  it,  a  shaft  of  sunlight  struck  the  ford 
and  turned  his  eyes  that  way.  It  clarified  the 
water  and  brought  the  stones  into  sight. 
Presently  he  saw  a  better  thing ;  a  goodly  fish 


86  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

lay  in  the  deeper  part,  faintly  swaying  his  tail. 
Gunnar  made  a  wide  cast  over  the  river  and 
crawled  up  the  bank  on  his  belly.  He  lay 
motionless,  watching  his  prey,  and  then,  inch 
by  inch,  approached  his  hand  to  the  belly  of 
the  fine  fish.  Inch  by  inch  he  went  upwards 
to  the  head;  then,  judging  his  time,  snapped 
his  fingers  together  into  the  gills  and  jerked 
the  fish  out  of  the  water.  Here  truly  was  a 
prize  awarded  him  by  the  sun.  The  fish  was 
good  eating.  He  ate  it  all  but  the  head  and 
bones. 

Now  he  must  decide  what  to  do,  whether 
he  should  follow  the  river  or  the  road.  If 
he  followed  the  road,  by  which  hand  should 
he  be  guided?  He  was  not  long  in  deciding 
the  first  issue.  The  sun  and  the  sky  were  too 
dear  to  him  to  be  lost  again.  For  the  second, 
he  was  for  following  the  sun,  which  was  high 
in  the  heavens.  If  it  were  noon,  the  road 
which  ran  into  the  sun  would  lead  him  to  the 
south.     On  the  south  also  was  the  sea.     Be- 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY      87 

sides  all  that,  there  was  to  be  said  that  the 
road  had  been  cleared  by  men,  and  must  lead 
to  the  dwellings  of  men. 

Strong  in  this  assurance,  he  went  briskly 
along  a  good  green  track.  Now  he  could  tell 
night  from  day ;  now  he  saw  birds  flying  over- 
head; presently  a  fox  trotted  across  the  way 
in  front  of  him,  saw  him  and  sat  up  to  watch. 
He  barked  shortly  once  or  twice  and  then 
galloped  into  the  thicket.  But  Gunnar  felt 
enheartened  by  the  sight  of  him.  After  that 
he  heard  wolves  howling  afar  off,  as  their 
custom  is  at  sunset.  But  the  great  event  of 
all  was  on  the  next  day,  when  he  saw  two 
things,  one  after  the  other,  which  made  his 
heart  beat.  The  first  was  a  dog,  which,  the 
moment  he  caught  sight  of  Gunnar,  pelted 
away  up  the  track  with  his  tail  clapped  to  his 
hinder  parts ;  the  second  was  a  young  woman. 
As  he  came  round  a  curve  in  the  road  she  was 
standing  in  the  middle  of  it  at  a  bowshot's 
distance.     She  was  very  pale,  black-haired. 


88  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

short-kirtled  and  barefoot.  He  stopped  im- 
mediately to  watch;  but  at  that  moment  she 
saw  him  and  slipped  among  the  trees.  Gun- 
nar  ran  with  all  his  might;  he  called;  he 
shouted.  No  answer.  He  couldn't  find  her 
anywhere.  No  matter.  Sweden  was  inhab- 
ited. He  would  not  die  lonely.  His  heart 
was  high  to  be  sure  of  that,  and  he  went  on 
rejoicing. 

Next  he  came  to  an  open  place,  a  clearing  in 
the  trees  where  men  had  lately  been.  He 
saw  the  ashes  of  their  fire,  bones,  the  skin  of 
a  goat.  He  saw  leaves  and  branches  which 
had  been  slept  upon;  he  saw  the  prints  of 
hoofs — ponies'  or  donkeys'  hoofs.  So  he 
journeyed  on,  and  at  last  smelled  the  friendly 
smell  of  burning  wood. 

"Now  to  accost  the  Swedes,"  he  said. 
"What  will  they  make  of  me?  Or  I  of 
them?" 

Guided  by  the  smell,  he  was  not  long  on  his 
way  before  he  saw  men  about  a  great  fire. 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY  89 

There  may  have  been  eight  of  them  there. 
They  looked  black,  and  he  knew  that  they 
were  charcoal-burners — which  in  fact  they 
wtTt.  Taking  his  life  in  his  hands  he  went 
directly  toward  them,  and  when  they  saw 
him  and  scrambled  to  their  feet  in  amaze- 
ment, he  lifted  his  hand  in  greeting  and  came 
among  them.  They  were  cooking  over  their 
fire;  a  great  pot  was  bubbling.  Their  dogs 
came  smelling  about  his  calves;  but  they 
themselves  stood  speechless  where  they  were. 
"Do  these  blacks  intend  my  death?"  he  asked 
himself.  He  hoped  not,  but  did  not  draw  the 
sword. 

Seeing  that  they  did  not  move,  and  that 
their  very  dogs  had  now  withdrawn  them- 
selves and  were  barking  uneasily  at  a  dis- 
tance, Gunnar  advanced  with  friendly  ges- 
tures. Hereupon  the  men,  with  one  accord, 
fell  to  their  knees  and  stooped  their  bodies 
until  their  faces  touched  the  earth.  "Good 
souls,  they  take  me  for  a  god,"  he  thought. 


90  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

He  was  now  fairly  within  the  line  of  them, 
and  stretching  his  hands  over  the  fire.  The 
smell  from  the  pot  tickled  his  nostrils  and 
brought  water  into  his  mouth.  How  long 
was  it  since  he  had  tasted  cooked  food?  It 
was  too  much  for  him.  Forgetting  the  dan- 
gers of  manhood  and  the  honors  of  godhead 
alike,  he  fished  in  the  pot  for  a  morsel,  sat 
down  and  began  to  eat.  He  found  himself 
ravenous,  and  in  good  case  to  better  himself ; 
he  might  have  eaten  the  contents  of  the  pot, 
but  that  by  cautious  degrees  the  charcoal- 
burners  began  to  consider  him.  He  found 
bright  eyes  peering  at  him  from  between 
sooty  fingers.  Finally,  one  bolder  than  the 
rest  lifted  his  head,  and  fairly  asked  him  if 
he  were  a  man  or  a  god.  He  spoke  hoarsely, 
but  could  be  understood. 

"Friend,"  Gunnar  said,  "you  may  see  by 
my  procedure  that  I  am  a  man  and  a  hungry 
one,  though  not  near  so  hungry  as  I  was." 

The  man,  at  this,  punched  his  neighbor  of 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY      91 

either  side,  and  said,  "Up,  for  this  is  a  man 
like  ourselves."  Presently  they  were  all  up 
and  about  him,  very  curious. 

"You  come  from  afar  off?     You  are  not 
of    this    country?     Whence,    then,    do    you 


come : 


?" 


Gunnar  said  that  he  was  from  Norway. 
They  had  never  heard  of  Norway.  One 
of  them  said  that  he  had  lived  all  his  days 
in  the  forest  country  and  had  never  seen  a 
stranger  before. 

Gunnar  pointed  to  the  west.  Norway,  he 
said,  lay  over  there,  beyond  the  mountains. 
They  replied  that  he  must  be  mistaken,  be- 
cause on  the  level  of  the  mountains  was  a 
great  lake  of  snow  and  water  in  which  the 
sun  dropped  every  night  and  was  quenched 
with  a  furious  hissing.  They  said  that  you 
could  hear  it  when  the  wind  came  that  way, 
and  that  the  mountain-tops  were  covered  with 
steam  thrown  up  by  the  dying  sun,  which 
sometimes  stayed  there  for  days  at  a  time. 


9£  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"And  yet,"  Gunnar  said,  "every  day  the 
sun  comes  up  again.  How  do  you  account 
for  that?" 

They  said  that  was  easy  to  understand; 
for  the  lake  had  no  bottom.  Therefore  the 
sun  dropped  through,  and  when  it  had 
emerged  kindled  again  upon  its  flight  through 
the  air.     And  this  went  on  forever. 

Gunnar  said,  "You  tell  me  marvelous 
things.  Now  let  me  tell  you  some."  So  he 
spoke  of  Norway  and  Iceland,  and  of  the 
great  ocean  beyond  Orkney;  and  of  Ireland, 
and  the  poets  and  holy  men  there.  Then  he 
went  on  to  talk  of  the  inland  sea  where  there 
were  no  tides,  but  only  rushing  currents,  and 
whirlpools  and  desperate  storms.  Lastly  he 
spoke  of  Micklegarth  and  of  a  sea  beyond  that 
again,  which  is  called  the  Black  Sea,  and  of 
the  terrible  folding  rocks  which  are  on  the 
edge  of  that.  To  all  of  this  they  listened  with 
open  mouths. 

When  they  inquired  what  had  brought  him 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY   93 

into  Sweden  he  frankly  told  them  how  it  was. 
They  said  that  he  was  safe  enough  here,  and 
that  nobody  would  do  him  any  harm. 

'Tew  men  fight  here,"  they  said.  "The 
worst  that  may  happen  to  you  is  that  you  will 
go  into  the  cage  and  be  offered  up  to  Frey. 
But  that  is  reckoned  an  honorable  way  of 
death.  You  serve  Frey,  and  you  serve 
Frey's  people,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  Frey 
won't  forget  it." 

*Tt  may  be  true,"  Gunnar  said,  "that  Frey 
won't  forget  me,  but  we  know  very  little  about 
Frey,  never  having  seen  him  at  any  time ;  and 
for  my  part  I  should  not  care  to  risk  it." 

They  all  looked  at  him  in  wonder. 

"But,"  said  one  of  them,  "everybody  has 
seen  Frey." 

"I  assure  you,"  said  Gunnar,  "that  I  have 
not — for  one.  And  Til  answ^er  for  every  man 
in  Norway." 

"We  know  nothing  of  the  Norwegians,  of 
whom  we  hear  for  the  first  time,"  he  was  told; 


94  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

*'but  the  people  of  this  part  have  good  reason 
to  know  Frey,  and  to  fear  him,  seeing  he  lives 
among  them,  and  is  now  a  day's  and  night's 
journey  from  here.  I  myself,"  the  speaker 
said,  '*saw  him  but  fourteen  days  ago,  in  his 
holy  place." 

'What  is  his  holy  place?" 

The  man  said,  *lt  is  his  temple  where  he 
lives  when  he  is  not  upon  his  rounds.  All 
the  winter  he  lives  there  with  his  wife,  and 
the  people  worship  him  and  make  feasts  for 
him.  But  when  the  winter  is  over,  and  the 
rains  come  to  wash  the  world  clean  for  the 
sun,  Frey  goes  off  in  his  wagon  and  visits  all 
the  villages  in  turn,  and  blesses  the  grain  and 
makes  it  fertile.  That  is  how  the  world  goes 
on,  and  men  get  food  for  their  pains." 

Gunnar  was  amazed.  *'Do  you  say  that 
Frey  has  a  wife?" 

"I  do  say  so,  since  it  is  true.  But  as  yet 
she  is  not  fruitful,  which  vexes  Frey." 

"Let   Frey   consider   himself,"   said   Gun- 


GUNNAR  HEARS  TELL  OF  FREY   95 

nar.     *lt  is  not  always  a  wife's  fault  if  she 
is  not  fruitful." 

"You  may  be  sure  that  the  fault  is  not 
Frey's,"  they  said. 

"I  am  not  at  all  so  sure,"  said  Gunnar. 
"Does  Frey  do  his  duty  by  her  ?" 

They  said,  "For  certain  he  does.  He  has 
been  married  to  her  these  two  years." 

"There's  time  yet,"  said  Gunnar;  "these 
are  early  days.     Is  she  a  young  woman?" 

"She  is  in  the  flower  of  her  age.  She  must 
be  sixteen  years  old." 

"And  is  she  of  this  country  ?" 

"It  is  not  certainly  known.  A  woman 
from  the  South  had  her.  She  said  that  her 
husband  had  been  slain  on  the  seacoast;  but 
no  one  here  can  say  anything  of  it  because  no 
one  has  ever  seen  the  sea.  Well,  when  the 
girl  was  of  marriageable  age  Frey  chose  her ; 
so  she  was  given  him." 

"And  how  did  Frey  choose  her  ?" 

"He  took  her." 


96  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Gunnar  thought  all  this  very  remarkable, 
and  said  that  he  should  himself  go  to  see 
Frey.  They  answered  to  that,  that  undoubt- 
edly he  would;  for  if  he  did  not  they  would 
be  bound  to  take  him,  as  an  offering,  since 
that  was  Frey's  pleasure. 

"Does  Frey  demand  human  sacrifice?" 
Gunnar  asked.     They  said  that  he  did. 

Gunnar  said,  *'He  shall  be  balked  of  me; 
but  I  have  a  very  handsome  cloak  about  me, 
which  I  shall  give  him  as  a  present  if  he 
pleases  to  be  benevolent  to  me." 

"All  depends  upon  his  wife,"  they  told  him. 
"She  has  the  power  of  choice  in  these  mat- 
ters." 

Gunnar  said,  "Leave  me  to  deal  with  Frey's 
wife.     I  have  a  way  with  w^omen." 


IX 

GuNNAR  Meets  with  Frey.     Concerning 
Frey's  Wife 

DIRECTED  by  the  charcoal-burners, 
Gunnar  made  his  way  to  the  village 
where  he  was  to  find  Frey  in  his  temple.  He 
reached  a  fine  clearing  in  the  forest  by  the 
late  afternoon,  and  was  soon  remarked  and 
almiost  as  soon  beset  by  the  inhabitants. 
Young  and  old,  mostly  women,  they  came 
about  him  like  a  cloud  of  gnats.  They  were 
a  wild,  dark-haired  and  pale  people,  well- 
made  but  not  tall.  They  were  all  barefoot, 
and  had  fierce,  husky  voices;  but  they  were 
harmless,  touching  him  by  the  prompting  of 
curiosity,  and  delight  in  a  thing  so  rare. 
His  beard  especially  moved  them.  They 
must  by  all  means  touch  that.     "It  is  like 

97 


98  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Frey's  beard.  He  is  Frey's  brother.  Bring 
him  to  Frey  then."  So  they  spoke  to  each 
other.  As  they  came  into  the  village  they 
formed  a  kind  of  procession.  A  young 
woman  took  him  by  either  hand;  children 
danced  in  front  of  him  singing  a  shrill  song; 
the  older  ones  shuffled  behind.  Dogs  capered 
and  barked  about. 

Wooden  houses,  built  clear  of  the  ground 
on  piles,  formed  the  village.  It  was  full  of 
dogs  and  children,  with  one  or  two  old  men 
peering  at  the  entry  from  the  shelter  of  trees. 
Gunnar  saw  the  roof  of  Frey's  temple,  a  long 
building  with  a  steep  gable.  The  roof  was 
of  heather.  They  entered  a  forecourt  and 
stood  before  the  temple.  In  the  midst  was 
an  altar  of  stone.  There  was  a  gallery  to  the 
house  sheltered  by  the  eaves  of  it  and  held  up 
by  trunks  of  trees,  smoothed  and  painted  with 
zigzags  in  red,  blue  and  yellow.  A  curtain 
hung  over  the  doorway.  He  saw  neither 
Frey  nor  his  wife. 


GUNNAR  MEETS  WITH  FREY        99 

The  women  who  had  conducted  him  sat 
upon  their  heels  and  began  their  song  again. 
The  rest  of  the  village  crowded  the  entry  of 
the  court.  When  they  had  sung  for  some 
time,  the  curtains  of  the  doorway  moved; 
Gunnar  thought  that  he  saw  the  outline  of  a 
shoulder,  and  then  was  positive  that  a  hand 
was  at  the  opening.  He  could  not  answer  for 
it,  but  he  fancied  that  he  was  being  looked 
at. 

In  the  meantime  the  crowd  began  to  draw 
away  from  him  and  to  form  two  companies, 
one  on  each  side.  He  found  himself  stand- 
ing alone,  and  looking  presently  around,  saw 
an  old  bearded  man  coming  toward  him  with 
a  long  bare  knife  in  his  hand.  He  had  glit- 
tering eyes  and  a  determined  expression. 

"This  old  man  is  going  to  shed  blood,"  said 
Gunnar  to  himself.  "He  chooses  for  mine, 
but  there  are  two  parties  to  a  bargaining  of 
that  sort." 

The  old  man,  being  now  beside  him,  pro- 


100  I'REY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

duced  from  the  bosom,  of  his  gown  a  coil  of 
cord. 

"He  will  truss  me  like  a  fowl,"  said  Gun- 
nar;  then  he  greeted  the  man  fairly,  giving 
him  the  time  of  day. 

"You  are  welcome,"  said  the  old  man. 
"It  is  the  hour  of  the  evening  sacrifice." 

"Is  that  so?"  Gunnar  answered.  "I  hope 
you  don't  take  me  for  your  offering,  I  have 
not  escaped  one  kind  of  death  to  fall,  into  an- 
other." 

"Frey  must  be  contented,"  said  the  old 
man. 

"He  shall  be,"  Gunnar  said;  "I  will  give 
him  my  cloak." 

He  opened  his  pack,  and  brought  out  the 
famous  cloak.  Shaking  out  the  folds  of  it, 
he  put  it  on  and  displayed  it.  The  assembly 
murmured  applause;  even  the  old  knifer  was 
moved. 

"I  have  brought  this  cloak  as  a  gift  for 
Frey,"  said  Gunnar.     "Set  open  the  temple; 


GUNNAR  MEETS  WITH  FREY       101 

let  him  show  himself  and  he  shall  have  it.  It 
will  last  him  longer  than  a  blood-offering, 
which  is  a  beastly  thing  not  at  all  suitable  to 
a  great  god.  In  my  country  we  serve  Frey 
— or  we  did  once  upon  a  time — ^but  not  with 
men's  blood.  Oxen  and  sheep  are  pleasing 
to  him;  dogs,  also,  and  hens.  But  he  has 
other  uses  for  men." 

The  old  man  was  fingering  the  cloak.  The 
gold  work  on  the  back  was  a  delight  and 
wonder  to  him. 

"Frey  has  never  had  so  much  gold  as  this. 
You  are  fortunately  come.  He  shall  have  the 
cloak  and  you  too." 

"You  are  mistaken,"  said  Gunnar.  "But 
in  order  to  make  sure,  I  will  go  and  ask  him." 

With  these  words  he  stepped  sharply  for- 
ward and  went  up  the  steps  to  the  temple  be- 
fore any  one  could  stop  him.  The  curtains 
opened  and  a  young  woman  came  out  and 
stood  before  them,  closing  them  behind  her. 

She  was  frightened,  but  bore  herself  with 


102  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

great  dignity.  She  could  not  check  the  short- 
ness of  her  breath,  however ;  nor  the  scare  in 
her  eyes.  She  was  not  tall,  and  she  was  very 
young;  she  was  dressed  in  a  blue  dress  which 
had  red  embroidery  round  the  neck.  Her 
black  hair  was  plaited,  and  on  her  head  she 
had  a  double  band  of  gold  wire  with  thin 
leaves  of  flat  gold  between  the  wires.  Gun- 
nar  saw  that  she  was  a  very  pretty  girl,  and 
thought  that  he  could  deal  with  her  if  he  had 
the  chance. 

He  saluted  her  civilly  and  told  her  what 
was  the  matter. 

"This  old  man  wishes  to  cut  my  throat,"  he 
told  her,  "and  I,  on  the  other  hand,  am 
strongly  against  it.  I  have  come  to  appeal 
to  you  or  to  Frey  against  such  a  breach  of 
hospitality." 

She  did  not  answer  him  at  first;  but  her 
eyes  were  upon  his  own,  and  her  lips  moved 
as  if  she  were  uncertain  what  to  say. 


GUNNAR  MEETS  WITH  FREY       103 

Presently  she  said,  ''Who  are  you,  and 
whence  do  you  come?" 

He  said,  ''My  name  is  Gunnar  Helming, 
and  I  am  from  Norway  over  the  mountains 
of  the  West.  I  am  outlaw-faring  as  you  see, 
and  have  no  friends  in  these  parts,  unless  you 
are  inclined  to  be  one." 

She  hesitated,  but  had  already  made  up  her 
mind.  "I  will  send  the  people  away,"  she 
said,  "and  then  we  will  ask  Frey." 

Gunnar  said,  "I  am  sure  that  Frey  will  be 
guided  by  you" ;  but  she  had  not  waited  to  lis- 
ten to  that,  being  already  down  the  steps  and 
among  the  people. 

"There  can  be  no  blood-sacrifice  of  this 
man,"  she  said  to  them,  but  not  in  Gunnar's 
hearing.  "This  man  is  the  friend  of  Frey, 
and  it  is  lucky  for  you,  I  can  tell  you,  that  you 
have  not  shed  his  blood.  I  was  just  in  time 
to  prevent  a  dreadful  thing  which  Frey  would 
never  have  forgiven  you.     Now  you  must  go 


104.  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

away  and  leave  the  two  together.  They  have 
not  met  for  a  long  time,  and  have  a  great  deal 
to  tell  each  other."  With  that  they  dispersed, 
and  Prey's  wife  came  back  to  Gunnar. 

"Xow,"  she  said,  "we  must  see  Prey." 

"I  am  going  to  offer  him  this  cloak  which 
I  am  wearing.     It  is  very  fine,  as  you  see." 

She  touched  the  gold,  and  then  took  one 
of  the  sable  tails  in  her  hand. 

*'It  is  beautiful."  she  said.  "Where  did 
you  get  it?" 

'T  had  it  from  a  great  rascal."  Gunnar  said, 
"who  made  a  pretext  of  it  to  do  me  the  wrong 
which  brings  me  here.  I  will  tell  you  the 
tale  if  you  care  to  listen  to  it." 

She  had  fixed  and  considering  eyes,  and 
still  held  the  sabletail.  Then  she  said 
shortly : 

*'\\e  must  go  in  to  Prey.     Come  with  me." 

Prey  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  temple. 
He  was  a  young  man  of  Gunnar's  height  and 


GUNNAR  MEETS  WITH  FREY       105 

proportions.  His  beard  was  red  and  his  hair 
was  brown.  He  had  staring  blue  eyes,  scar- 
let nostrils  and  a  fixed  smile.  His  lips  also 
were  scarlet.  On  his  head  was  a  crown  of 
golden  oak-leaves  and  acorns.  In  one  hand 
he  held  a  golden  cone,  like  the  fruit  of  a  pine- 
tree,  but  much  larger.  In  the  other  he  had  a 
staff  which  was  tipped  with  a  bud.  He  had  a 
green  tunic  upon  him  and  red  hose.  His  legs 
below  the  knees  were  bound  in  leather,  and 
he  was  shod  with  soft  leather  dyed  red.  He 
himself  was  made  of  wood  and  painted  all 
over  in  colors  brighter  than  life,  but  his 
clothes  were  as  real  as  yours  or  mine. 

"So  this  is  Frey,''  said  Gunnar  to  himself 
with  great  astonishment.  ''I  would  rather 
have  the  friendship  of  his  wife." 

This  wife  of  his  did  not  take  much  notice 
of  her  husband,  it  seemed  to  him.  She  drew 
a  settle  out  a  little  way  from  the  wall  and 
sat  on  it,  inviting  Gunnar  to  a  seat  beside 
her. 


106  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Now  tell  me  the  tale,"  she  said.  So  he 
did. 

She  said,  "The  man  is  not  your  enemy. 
Neither  is  the  king.  The  man  acted  basely, 
but  the  king  could  not  do  otherwise  than  he 
did,  for  appearances  were  against  you.  But 
I  see  that  you  are  an  unlucky  man,  because 
Frey  has  no  liking  for  you." 

"How  can  you  say  that?"  said  Gunnar. 

"I  can  tell  by  the  look  of  him.  He  will  not 
say  anything.  It  is  not  his  way.  But  he  is 
no  friend  to  you." 

"If  I  give  him  my  cloak,"  said  Gunnar, 
"he  may  think  better  of  me." 

She  shook  her  head.  "I  doubt  it.  But 
certainly  he  must  have  it.  There  is  no  other 
way.  Besides,  when  the  people  see  that  he 
has  accepted  your  cloak  they  at  least  will  be 
contented." 

Gunnar  gave  her  the  cloak,  and  she  cast 
it    over    Frey's    shoulder,    and    touched    his 


GUNNAR  MEETS  WITH  FREY       107 

beard  while  she  whispered  to  him  what  it  was. 
In  order  to  whisper  in  his  ear  she  had  to  stand 
tiptoe. 

''Well,"  said  Gunnar,  ''and  how  does  he 
take  it?" 

"Very  ill,"  she  said. 

"Then  do  you  send  me  away?" 

She  hung  her  head,  and  thought  about  it. 
"No,"  she  said,  "I  can't  do  that  just  yet. 
You  shall  stay  here  for  three  days,  and  maybe 
he  will  like  you  better.  I  will  talk  to  him 
about  it  to-night  when  we  are  in  bed." 

"Do  you  go  to  bed  with  Frey?"  he  said 
in  astonishment;  but  her  own  was  equal  to 
his. 

"Where  else  should  I  go  if  I  am  his 
wife?"  she  said.  Then  she  grew  red  and 
turned  away  her  face. 

Gunnar  said,  "I  will  ask  you  what  your 
name  is,  Frey's  wife.  I  can't  call  you  that 
for  three  days." 


108  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Why  so?"  she  asked  him,  rather  fiercely. 
"Because  it  seems  to  me  fooHshness." 
"I  am  called  Sigrid,"  she  said. 
"Then  I  shall  call  you  Sigrid,"  said  Gun- 
nar. 


X 

Talk  Between  Gunnar  and  Sigrid 

GUNNAR  was  a  friendly  man  and  made 
himself  pleasant  about  the  place.  He 
used  to  sit  out  in  the  sun  and  converse  with 
the  village  people.  He  told  tales  to  the  chil- 
dren and  played  games  with  them.  The  old 
man  who  had  been  wishful  to  sacrifice  him 
bore  him  no  malice;  but  Gunnar  told  him 
plainly  that  he  did  not  approve  his  practices. 

"In  my  country,  and  in  Iceland  also,  there 
has  been  much  devotion  to  Frey,  who  is  a 
great  god ;  but  human  sacrifice  is  not  required 
by  him,  nor  are  we  profaned  with  it.  Prison- 
ers of  war  may  not  be  used  that  way.  We 
think  it  barbarous  and  abominable." 

'"Well,"  the  old  man  said,  ''it  has  always 
been  the  custom  here.     And  you  must  re- 

109 


110  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

member  the  services  Frey  performs.  He  is 
resting  now.  His  work  is  over.  But  when 
the  spring  comes  there  will  be  no  man  in  the 
country  busier  than  Frey.  There  is  not  a 
tilled  field  he  must  not  visit;  and  the  grass- 
lands and  the  gravid  sheep,  and  the  lambs  and 
sucklings  of  all  sorts;  the  sick  draught-ani- 
mals ;  the  ewes  who  are  to  go  under  the  rams ; 
the  bulling  cows ;  the  reindeer— well,  you  can 
see  for  yourself  that  he  must  be  propitiated. 
And  how  else,  pray,  would  you  have  it 
done?" 

'The  Christians,  who  are  to  the  fore  in 
Norway  just  now,"  replied  Gunnar,  "have 
a  God  Who  has  given  them  another  law  alto- 
gether. Their  God  had  a  Son  Who  said  to 
His  Father,  'Enough  of  these  human  sac- 
rifices. I  detest  them  and  will  have  nothing 
to  say  to  them.'  'What  will  you  do  then?' 
His  Father  asked.  'Why,'  said  He,  'I  will  be 
made  man  myself.  I  will  be  born  of  a 
woman,  and  put  to  death.     That  will  be  a 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  111 

sufficient  sacrifice  for  every  one  in  the  world.' 
And  so  it  was,  they  say,  and  their  God  ac- 
cepted it  as  sufficient.  But  the  Christians 
have  a  strange  power  which  is  resident  in 
their  priests;  and  that  is,  that  the  priest  does 
sacrifice  every  day,  and  makes  anew  the  Son 
of  God  into  a  man  of  body  and  blood. 
Every  day  he  offers  it  on  the  altar.  So  the 
prime  sacrifice  is  every  day  renewed,  and  all 
goes  well.     That  is  what  they  say." 

The  old  man  was  very  much  astonished, 
"You  are  speaking  of  marvelous  things,"  he 
said.  "It  is  the  way  of  you  travelers.  But 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  Swedes  would  be 
content  with  such  a  sacrifice,  and  I  am  sure 
that  Frey  would  not." 

"We  shall  see,"  Gunnar  replied,  but  said 
no  more  at  the  time.  He  was  determined 
that  while  he  remained  in  Frey's  house  Frey 
should  go  without  human  blood  upon  his  al- 
tar-stone. 

Sigrid  liked  him  to  be  there.     She  found 


112  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

him  very  good  company.  He  made  her 
laugh,  which  Frey,  she  said,  had  never  done 
yet. 

"He  will  though,"  Gunnar  told  her,  but  she 
shook  her  head. 

At  the  end  of  three  days,  he  asked  her 
what  he  w^as  to  do  about  staying  on.  They 
sat  together  under  the  gallery  outside  the 
house.  Frey  was  inside  behind  his  curtains. 
It  was  the  hour  before  the  sacrifice,  when  his 
curtains  would  be  opened,  and  himself  shown 
in  his  fine  new  cloak.  So  far  there  had  been 
no  attempt  made,  to  sacrifice  a  man  or  child, 
for  which  Gunnar  was  glad,  because  he  was 
not  yet  sure  enough  of  his  footing. 

She  frowned  and  nursed  her  chin. 
*'Why,"  she  said,  *'I  don't  know  what  is  to  be 
done.  Frey  doesn't  like  you  at  all;  I  can  see 
that." 

"Have  you  talked  it  over  with  him  as  you 
promised  me?"     She  nodded  her  head. 

"And  what  did  he  say?" 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  113 

She  looked  away  as  she  answered  him. 

"He  said  very  little;  but  he  was  very  stiff." 

"I  should  think  he  was  always  rather  stiff," 
Gunnar  said,  and  she  frowned  and  grew 
red. 

"But  what  do  you  feel  about  it  yourself?" 
said  Gunnar.  "I  believe  that  you  find  me  well 
enough." 

She  nodded.  "Yes,  I  do.  I  like  you  to  be 
here.  You  make  me  laugh.  I  feel  younger 
than  I  did." 

"That  is  good  news,"  said  Gunnar.  "I  un- 
derstand that  you  are  sixteen  years  old.  Do 
you  now  feel  that  you  are  twelve?" 

She  laughed.     "Sometimes  I  do." 

"Then,"  said  Gunnar,  "keep  me  here  a 
month  or  two  longer  and  I  shall  rock  you  in 
your  cradle." 

She  considered  whether  he  was  laughing  at 
her,  and  then  asked  him  suddenly,  was  he 
married,  had  he  children? 

"No,  sweetheart,"  he  said,  "but  I  should 


114  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

like  a  wife  very  well  if  I  could  get  one  to  my 
mind." 

Now  she  reproved  him.  "You  must  not 
say  that.     I  am  not  to  be  called  so." 

"Why,  what  is  the  harm  in  that?"  he  said. 
"It's  what  I  used  to  call  Sorrel,  my  mare." 

"It  may  be  so,"  she  replied,  "but  I  am  not 
your  mare." 

"No,  indeed,"  he  said.  "But  what  then 
shall  I  call  you?  Shall  I  say  'Pretty  one'  or 
'Kind  lass'?" 

"No.     Frey  would  dislike  it." 

"But,"  he  said,  "all  these  names  are  true  of 
you." 

She  said,  "Frey  would  like  them  all  the 
less." 

Gunnar  said  that  he  would  risk  it.  And 
certain  it  is  that  he  did,  and  that  she  said 
nothing  more  about  it. 

She  decided  that  he  should  stay  on  until 
the  winter  feasts  began. 

"And  then  we  will  see  what  can  be  done. 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  115 

Maybe  he  will  be  more  used  to  you  by  then." 
"Oh,  as  for  him,"  Gunnar  said  lightly,  "he 
has  had  a  fine  cloak  from  me,  and  I  suppose 
that  is  enough." 

She  frowned,  and  tossed  her  foot.  "You 
don't  know  Frey  yet." 

Then  came  the  hour  of  sacrifice  and  a  lead- 
ing-in  of  sick  animals  to  be  blessed  by  Frey. 
Gunnar  was  very  useful  here,  for  he  was 
skilled  in  farriery,  and  could  do  much,  too, 
with  sheep  and  cattle.  The  people  called  him 
the  new  priest  of  Frey,  and  held  him  in  great 
honor.  But  the  more  that  they  thought  of 
Frey  on  his  account  the  less,  naturally,  Gun- 
nar thought  of  him  on  his  own.  He  did  not 
now  believe  that  even  a  devil  resided  in  him, 
or,  at  least,  he  found  it  difficult  of  belief. 
Frey  had  the  appearance  of  frowning  some- 
times, and  sometimes  there  seemed  to  be  a  red 
flame  in  his  eyes.  Another  thing  he  could 
do  with  his  eyes :  he  could  cause  them  to  fol- 
low you  all  over  the  room.     Those  eyes  of  his 


116  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

were  forever  upon  Gunnar  and  Sigrid  so  that 
they  used  to  say  to  each  other,  "We  can't  talk 
here.     Let  us  go  into  the  gallery." 

She  never  said,  "Let  us  go  into  the  cham- 
ber," and  it  never  entered  Gunnar's  mind  to 
propose  it.     But  it  had  entered  into  hers. 

Gunnar,  however,  began  to  dislike  Frey. 
He  despised  him,  and  yet  found  that  added  to 
his  dislike.  He  told  himself  that  Sigrid's 
marriage  was  a  black  shame. 

After  he  had  been  with  her  a  while  she 
told  him  what  she  knew  about  herself.  She 
had  never  known  her  father,  nor  even  what 
his  name  was.  Her  mother  had  been  called 
Sea-child ;  and  Sigrid  remembered  being  car- 
ried on  her  back,  slung  in  a  shawl.  Her 
mother  had  had  black  hair  and  yellow  eyes 
which  looked  black  in  the  dark,  and  as  pale 
as  the  palest  amber  in  strong  light.  She  was 
rather  tall,  whereas  Sigrid — who  also  had 
black  hair  and  amber  eyes,  though  of  a  darker 
tint — was  a  little  woman.     She  thought  that 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  IIT 

she  remembered  her  mother  saying  that  they 
had  crossed  the  sea;  and  that  somebody,  her 
mother  or  an  old  man  who  used  to  be  with 
them  sometimes,  had  spoken  of  a  city  called 
Prag.  She  thought  that  this  must  be  true, 
because  she  had  never  heard  anybody  in 
Sweden  speak  of  Prag,  and  doubted  she  could 
have  made  up  the  name  for  herself.  Gunnar 
told  her  that  she  had  not. 

'There  is  a  city  called  Prag,  on  a  mighty 
river.  I  have  seen  the  river,"  he  said,  "but 
not  the  city  of  Prag." 

Well,  then  she  told  him  that  the  Swedes 
had  ill-treated  the  old  man  who  used  to  be 
with  them.  They  had  put  him  into  an  osier 
basket,  and  pierced,  that  through  and  through 
with  swords;  she  remembered  the  bright 
blood  welling  out  between  the  plaited  wicker. 
That  had  been  done  upon  the  altar  of  a  god 
— she  believed  it  was  Frey.  As  for  her 
mother,  some  man  had  taken  her  to  live  in  his 
house,  and  she  herself  had  lain  about  with  the 


118  FREY  AND  HIS  WIF^ 

cattle,  and  had  been  sent  to  keep  swine  in  the 
woods.  Nobody  had  hurt  her,  but  she  had 
gone  in  terror  of  wolves,  which  in  winter  were 
dangerous,  and  came  sometimes  into  the  vil- 
lages and  carried  off  children  from  the  door- 
ways. They  were  so  hungry  that  even  when 
they  were  beaten  off  they  only  ran  to  a  little 
distance,  and  then  came  back  again  to  snuff 
about  for  what  there  might  be  in  their  way. 

Then  she  remembered  a  day  when  her 
mother  brought  her  into  the  house,  and  took 
off  her  rags,  and  put  a  new  gown  on  her. 
She  twisted  up  her  hair  into  a  long  plait,  and 
made  her  see  if  she  could  still  sit  upon  it. 
That  was  easy.  After  that  she  was  kept  at 
home  with  the  children  of  the  house ;  and  men 
used  to  take  notice  of  her,  kiss  her  and  take 
her  on  their  knees.  She  had  liked  that  for  a 
time,  because  she  liked  people  who  were  kind 
and  friendly;  but  there  was  too  much  of  it, 
and  she  used  to  run  away  and  hide  herself. 

There   had   been   a    lad,    she    said,    called 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  119 

Tostig,  belonging  to  the  household  of  her 
mother's  husband.  He  had  been  in  love  with 
her,  she  supposed.  At  any  rate,  he  was  al- 
ways in  her  company,  and  she  had  liked  him 
very  well.  One  day  when  they  were  all  in 
the  temple  before  Frey,  with  garlands  of  flow- 
ers, Frey's  eyes  had  burned  fiercely,  and  by- 
and-by  he  fell  forward  upon  Tostig  and 
knocked  him  down.  They  picked  up  Frey; 
and  the  priests  said  that  Tostig  was  to  be  sac- 
rificed. That  was  done.  They  put  him  in 
an  osier  basket  and  transpierced  it  with  their 
swords.  After  that  Frey's  eyes  were  cool 
and  steady,  and  nothing  more  occurred  until 
the  following  spring  when  Frey  was  to  have 
started  on  his  rounds  to  bless  the  vegetation. 
Then,  again,  when  they  were  in  the  temple 
his  eyes  burned,  and  again  he  fell,  this  time 
upon  herself.  She  was  thrown  backwards 
and  Frey  upon  her.  Then  she  believed  that 
her  last  hour  was  at  hand ;  but  her  mother  was 
shrill  and  urgent  with  the  priests,  calling  them 


120  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

fools.  She  said  that  Frey  had  been  jealous 
of  Tostig  and  fell  upon  him  on  that  account; 
but  he  fell  upon  Sigrid  for  no  reason  of  that 
sort,  but  to  mark  her  for  his  own.  Sigrid, 
she  said,  was  now  marriageable.  Frey 
wanted  to  marry  her,  and  to  disoblige  him 
would  be  at  their  peril.  There  was  high  de- 
bate about  all  this,  and  other  priests  from 
other  villages  were  called  in.  Frey  was 
asked,  and  they  say  that  he  nodded  his  head. 
She  herself  was  not  asked ;  but  she  was  taken 
into  the  temple  one  night  by  her  mother  and 
told  what  she  would  have  to  do.  On  the  next 
day  was  the  wedding  and  great  rejoicings  all 
over  the  forest  country. 

Gunnar  stopped  her  here.  "They  married 
you  to  that  block  of  painted  wood?" 

She  said,  'They  married  me  to  Frey." 

Gunnar  said,  "But — "  and  then  he  stopped 
short  himself.     "There  is  no  more  to  be  said." 

"No,"  she  said,  "that  is  the  end  of  it.  We 
set  out  in  the  ox-wagon  soon  after  that." 


GUNNAR  AND  SIGRID  121 

"How  long  ago  was  this  ?"  he  asked  her. 

She  replied,  "I  was  marriageable,  my 
mother  said.  I  don't  know  when  it  was." 
Then  she  thought  aloud.  "One,  two,  three 
— ^yes,  it  was  three  springs  ago  last  spring." 

"And  you  say  you  are  sixteen  years  old?" 

"I  don't  say  so,"  she  replied;  "the  people 
here  say  so.  My  mother  died  two  springs  ago 
when  I  was  away  with  Frey  on  his  rounds." 

Gunnar  got  up  from  the  bench  where  they 
were  sitting. 

"Wait  here  for  me,"  he  said,  and  went  into 
the  temple,  folding  the  curtains  behind  him. 
There  was  Frey,  crowned  and  standing,  with 
his  shining  scarlet  nostrils.  Gunnar  went  up 
to  him  and  took  him  by  the  nose.  "God  or 
devil,"  he  said,  "I'll  get  this  out  of  joint  be- 
fore Fve  done  with  you,  or  you  with  Gun- 
nar." Frey  rocked  under  the  force  of  his 
passion,  but  said  nothing. 

Gunnar  came  back  and  found  Sigrid  where 
she  was.     She  did  not  look  up.     He  stretched 


123  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

out  his  hands  toward  her,  then  dropped 
them  and  began  to  whistle  a  tune. 

That  made  her  look  up  smiling.  "You 
seem  in  good  spirits,"  she  said. 

"I  feel  considerably  better  than  I  did,"  he 
told  her,  *'but  there  is  much  to  do  before  I  am 
perfectly  myself  again." 


XI 

GuNNAR  Turns  Frey  About  Against 
Frey's  Will 

SIGRID  told  Gunnar  that  the  old  priest 
of  Frey  who  lived  in  the  village,  and  who 
had  been  the  man  wishful  to  slay  him  on  the 
altar,  intended  to  have  a  sacrifice  on  the  mor- 
row. 

"Oh,  does  he  so?"  said  Gunnar.  "And 
what  is  he  going  to  sacrifice?" 

She  said,  "It  is  a  boy." 

"We  will  see  about  that,"  Gunnar  said. 
"It  may  be  that  it  will  be  himself  who  gets 
the  worst  of  it." 

The  next  day,  before  the  hour  of  sacrifice, 
Gunnar  told  Sigrid  to  go  into  the  court  and 
leave  him  to  draw  the  curtains.     She  did  as 

123 


124?  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

she  was  told.  The  people  assembled,  and  he 
heard  their  singing,  and  the  stamping  of  their 
feet  as  they  danced  about  the  victim.  Then 
they  all  called  on  Frey,  and  Gunnar  peeped 
through  the  curtains  and  saw  the  old  man  in 
a  crown  of  leaves,  with  his  knife  in  his  hand, 
and  the  victim,  naked  except  for  a  loin-cloth, 
bound  up  tightly  with  cords.  There,  also, 
was  the  basket  of  osier.  Having  done  what 
he  wished  to  do  in  the  temple,  he  drew  the 
curtains.  To  their  great  consternation  the 
people  saw  that  Frey  had  his  back  to  them  in- 
stead of  his  face.  Gunnar,  who  had  come 
out  by  a  side  door,  joined  Sigrid  in  the  gal- 
lery of  the  temple.  They  sat  close  together 
looking  at  the  amazed  people. 

The  old  man  gave  a  shrill  cry.  "Frey 
abandons  us!  He  is  angry."  Then  he 
turned  to  his  flock  and  spoke  vehemently,  but 
Gunnar  could  not  hear  his  words.  Sigrid 
watched  them  with  keen  and  bitter  eyes. 

Presently  the  old  man  turned  again  and 


GUNNAR  TURNS  FREY  ABOUT      125 

beckoned  to  Gunnar.  He,  however,  sat 
where  he  was.  Then  he  was  hailed  by  his 
enemy. 

"You,  stranger,  come  down." 

Gunnar  said,  "I  am  a  servant  of  the  tem- 
ple, and  will  not  come  down.  Do  you  come 
up  rather  and  say  what  you  have  to  say." 

The  old  man  then  came  shuffling  up,  with 
his  gown  dragging  at  his  ankles.  When  he 
stood  before  Gunnar,  he  was  out  of  breath, 
and  that  added  to  his  rage. 

Gunnar  asked  him  what  the  matter  was, 
and  Whitebeard  gnashed  his  gums  together. 

'The  matter  is  that  Frey  is  angry — not  be- 
cause of  sacrifice,  but  because  there  has  been 
none  since  you  came  here.  There  must  be 
much  more  blood  shed — and  the  sooner  the 
better." 

*T  assure  you,"  Gunnar  replied,  "that  there 
will  be  blood  shed  if  you  persist,  and  that 
blood  will  be  your  own." 

Whitebeard  looked  fiercely  at  him.     "You 


126  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

are  talking  foolishly.  Who  would  shed  my 
blood?  And  how  would  that  be  pleasing  to 
my  master  Frey?" 

Gunnar  replied,  "I  will  tell  you  the  answer 
to  your  questions.  To  your  first:  I  would 
very  willingly  shed  your  blood,  and  your  blood 
is  the  only  blood  that  I  would  willingly  shed. 
And  I  believe  that  all  these  people  would  dip 
their  hands  in  it  and  show  it  to  Frey,  who 
would  then  turn  his  face  to  them  again.  As 
for  your  second,  it  is  plain  that  Frey  is  dis- 
pleased with  your  present  sacrifice." 

Whitebeard  was  in  a  great  rage.  He  put 
his  face  close  to  Gunnar's  and  said,  whisper- 
ing (but  Sigrid  heard  him),  'Tt  was  you  who 
turned  Frey  about." 

*Tt  was,"  said  Gunnar. 

"You  own  to  your  blasphemy.  For 
blasphemy  it  is,  though  you  said  nothing." 

"Take  it  so,"  said  Gunnar. 

The  old  man  looked  about  him,  not  know- 
ing what  to  do  next.     His  eyes   fell  upon 


GUNNAR  TURNS  FREY  ABOUT      127 

Sigrid,  who  stood  stiffly  by  with  fixed  looks. 

"Mistress,"  he  said  then,  "Frey's  wife, 
what  say  you?"     She  shivered. 

'There  must  be  no  sacrifice,"  she  said. 
"Frey  wnll  not  have  it." 

"But  you  heard  this  man  tell  me  that  he 
turned  Frey  about  ?" 

"I  did,"  she  said.  ''He  did  so  at  my  de- 
sire." 

"You  own  yourself  party  to  his  wicked 
mind?" 

"His  mind  is  the  mind  of  Frey  in  this,"  she 
said. 

The  old  man  frowned  deeply.  "You  avow 
that?" 

"I  do." 

"Did  Frey  confide  it  to  you  ?" 

"He  did." 

"When  this  man  Gunnar  was  not  there?" 

"He  was  not  there." 

The  old  man  tossed  his  arms  up.  "There 
is  no  more  to  say." 


128  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Then  Gunnar,  even  while  his  enemy  stood 
by  him,  addressed  the  people.  He  said,  "I 
come  from  a  distant  country,  where  Frey  has 
been  had  in  honor,  but  not  in  your  way. 
Your  way  is  beastliness  and  great  shame  to 
you  because  you  read  into  the  mind  of  the 
god  what  is  the  secret  pleasure  of  the  vilest 
of  you,  such  as  this  old  toothless  man  here. 
He,  loving  to  see  men's  blood  flow,  believes 
that  Frey  takes  joy  in  it  also.  But  Frey 
knows  very  well  that  a  man  is  better  than  a 
beast,  and  if  he  love  the  smell  of  beasts'  blood, 
that  is  his  affair,  but  the  blood  of  men  is  more 
honorable  than  that,  and  reserved  for  better 
work.  He  says  that  I  put  into  the  mind  of 
Frey  to  be  done  with  the  slaughter  of  men. 
Have  it  that  I  did ;  did  I  not  well  to  bring  his 
mind  to  what  is  excellent  in  men?  Of  what 
use  to  Frey  is  there  or  what  pleasure  can  he 
have  in  the  blood  of  base  or  craven  men?  I 
said  that  I  would  shed  the  blood  of  this  vile 
old  man,  and  so  I  would  if  I  thought  that 


GUNNAR  TURNS  FREY  ABOUT      129 

Frey  would  be  the  better  of  it.  But  the  fact 
is  that  it  would  make  the  ground  sick,  and 
Frey  would  curse  you  for  the  gift.  Have 
done  with  that,  and  be  sure  that  Frey  does  not 
need  blood  at  all,  but  honesty  and  the  good 
works  of  your  hands.  If  you  have  children, 
offer  them  to  Frey,  but  alive,  not  dead.  Shed 
marrow  rather  than  blood,  and  Frey  will  ap- 
prove your  fruitfulness  and  bless  the  seed 
and  the  seed-plot.  And  if  blood  must  be 
shed,  let  Frey  shed  his  own  for  you,  as  the 
God  of  the  Christians  did.  Who  gives  His  peo- 
ple every  day  His  body  to  eat  and  His  blood 
to  drink — which  turn  in  their  breasts  to  milk 
and  in  their  veins  to  courage.  Let  Frey  show 
himself  such  a  god,  and  you  will  have  no 
need  for  lascivious-minded  old  men  to  lead 
you  into  their  own  nasty  vices."  Then, 
turning  to  Whitebeard,  he  said,  "Get  you 
gone,  old  monster,  and  gnash  your  gums  apart 
where  none  can  see  your  impotent  malice." 
The  people  applauded  him  when  he  had 


130  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

done.  Some  brought  branches  of  trees,  and 
some  nests  of  eggs  to  Frey.  Then  Gunnar 
turned  him  round  to  face  them,  and  they  re- 
joiced. 

But  Sigrid  was  pale  and  trembhng,  and 
would  not  look  at  Gunnar  or  speak  to  him 
all  the  rest  of  the  day.  She  stood  about  by 
Frey,  and  put  her  hand  in  his,  and  talked 
to  him,  sometimes  touching  his  beard. 

Gunnar  made  the  best  of  it,  and  let  her 
alone;  but  seeing  her  next  day  in  the  same 
mood  of  alienation,  he  asked  her  what  the 
matter  was,  and  said,  "Is  there  anything  I 
can  do  about  it?" 

She  began  to  tremble  again,  and  violently; 
but  she  used  all  her  force  to  control  herself, 
and  ffresently  told  him  that  all  he  could  do  was 
to  leave  the  place. 

"If  you  seek  my  happiness,"  she  said,  "that 
is  what  you  will  do." 

"Well,"  said  Gunnar,  "I  do  wish  you  happy, 
sweetheart." 


GUNNAR  TURNS  FREY  ABOUT      131 

*'Ah,"  said  she,  "it  is  your  sweethearting  of 
me  that  has  made  this  trouble." 

"Well,"  he  said  again,  "and  it  does  make 
trouble,  my  dear;  but  it  is  a  pleasant  trouble 
when  all's  said;  and  there's  a  remedy  for  it." 

"It  is  that  which  I  desire,"  she  said,  and  he 
said,  "So  do  I  desire  it." 

Then  she  said,  "Do  you  know  what  you  did 
yesterday?     You  made  me  untrue  to  Frey." 

"How  so?" 

"Why,  you  drove  me  to  say  what  was  un- 
true. He  did  not  speak  his  mind  to  me. 
That  is  not  true.  Or,  if  he  did,  what  he  said 
was  quite  otherwise." 

"You  mean,"  said  Gunnar,  "that  the  mind 
of  Frey,  as  you  understand  it,  is  not  my 
mind." 

"Certainly  it  is  not,"  she  said.  "He  hates 
you.     He  does  not  rest  because'  of  you." 

Gunnar  looked  at  her.  "You  mean,  I  be- 
lieve, that  you  do  not  rest." 

She  stamped  her   foot.     "It   is  the   same 


ISa  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

thing.     If  he  does  not  rest,  how  can  I  rest?" 

Gunnar  said,  *'It  is  not  at  all  the  same  thing. 
And  do  you  think  you  would  rest  better  if  I 
went  away?" 

She  shook  her  head,  but  did  not  speak. 
He  saw  that  she  was  crying. 

"Well,"  said  he,  after  a  while,  "then  I  shall 
not  go,  but  will  stay  here  and  make  Frey  a 
little  more  friendly." 

"Ah,"  she  said  in  her  tears,  "you  won't  do 
that.     He  is  jealous  of  you.     You  can  see  it." 

"I  see  nothing  of  it,  I  assure  you,"  Gunnar 
said,  "and  he  has  no  cause.  But  there  are 
many  ways  of  curing  jealousy,  one  of  which 
is  easy." 

She  waited  to  hear  what  it  was,  but  with- 
out asking.  She  wanted  to  know  very  badly, 
but  Gunnar  did  not  tell  her  what  it  was.  So 
after  a  while  of  waiting  she  said,  "You  are 
hateful ;  I  hate  you,"  and  walked  away. 

Gunnar  went  out  into  the  sun ;  and  by-and- 
by  she  came  back  with  needlework  and  sat 


GLTNNAR  TURNS  FREY  ABOUT      133 

where  she  could  see  him  at  his  business  of 
tending  the  temple-garth;  but  she  would  not 
speak  to  him  for  the  rest  of  the  day. 

The  season  wore  to  the  winter.  With  the 
first  snow  and  the  fall  of  the  leaf  men  began 
to  make  ready  for  the  winter  feasts-.  There 
was  now  no  question  of  Gunnar  going.  No 
man  could  travel  that  country  in  the  winter 
when  the  days  are  but  a  few  hours  long,  and 
the  snow  is  deep  and  bends  the  trees  to  the 
earth.  Gunnar,  who  did  not  want  to  go  at 
all,  put  it  jokingly  to  Sigrid  that  perhaps  the 
god  of  the  wolves  wanted  a  human  sacrifice, 
and  that  perhaps  it  was  himself  they  wanted. 
She  showed  him  her  eyes  full  of  trouble,  and 
he  was  touched. 

"You  don't  wish  me  to  say  that?" 

She  said,  "I  cannot  bear  you  to  talk  lightly 
of  such  things." 

'Trey  would  be  glad  of  such  a  sacrifice,  I 
am  thinking." 


134  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

She  left  him  instantly  and  went  to  Frey. 
But  she  soon  came  back  again.  She  was 
never  long  away  from  where  he  happened 
to  be. 


XII 

The  Winter  Feasts 

THE  custom  of  the  winter,  when  no  man 
could  work,  was  to  make  merry  with 
what  had  been  gained  in  the  summer.  Tvlen 
killed  pigs  and  sheep,  and  drank  their  mead 
out  of  horns.  This  was  the  time  for  skalds 
and  story-tellers. 

But  the  village  where  Gunnar  was  now 
settled  was  a  holy  village,  because  of  Frey's 
house.  It  was  proper  that  no  feast  should 
be  held  unless  Frey  were  present  at  it.  He 
was  carried  from  homestead  to  homestead; 
and  where  he  was  there  was  Sigrid  his  wife, 
and  there  now  was  Gunnar  also.  Those 
three  always  sat  on  the  dais  with  the  giver 
of  the  feast,  and  when  the  tables  were  ready 
they  had  the  chief  seats.     Sigrid  was  waited 

135 


136  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

upon  as  if  she  had  been  a  man,  and  great  re- 
spect was  shown  her,  which  she  sullenly  re- 
ceived. Once  she  had  told  Gunnar  that  she 
disliked  being  noticed.  She  had  said  that  she 
had  been  happiest  in  the  days  when  she  was 
keeping  pigs  in  the  forest;  and  he  had  said 
that  he  understood  that  very  well.  Now  he 
put  that  down  as  the  reason  why  she  had 
a  hang-dog  look  at  these  merry-makings,  ate 
little,  drank  less,  said  little  and  laughed  not 
at  all.  When  the  drinking  began  she  al- 
ways left  the  hall  and  sat  with  the  women  in 
the  bower.  Frey  was  left — and  then  it  was 
that  Gunnar  in  his  cups  used  to  take  liber- 
ties with  Frey — to  clap  a  clout  over  one  of  his 
eyes,  or  stick  an  apple  on  a  spike  of  his 
crown.  He  was  wary  how  he  played  these 
tricks,  for  in  some  company  it  would  have 
been  taken  very  ill;  but  in  some,  and  when 
men  were  far  disguised  in  drink,  his  japes 
went  well  enough,  and  gave  him  satisfac- 
tion. 


THE  WINTER  FEASTS  137 

He  was  by  now  entirely  out  of  conceit  with 
Frey.  That  a  god  should  be  throned  in  the 
world  he  sincerely  believed — and  could  swear 
to  a  hundred  or  more;  but  that  one  should 
be  caged  in  a  painted  block  he  did  not  be- 
lieve. As  for  his  marriage,  that  made  the 
hairs  on  his  back  bristle,  and  his  neck  to 
swell.  A  good  deal  of  talk  went  on  when 
Sigrid  was  gone  with  the  women.  He  lis- 
tened to  it  and  raged,  but  outwardly  he  was 
still,  and  found  nothing  to  say.  The  people 
expected — or  some  of  them — that  Sigrid 
would  bring  Frey  a  child.  Some  said  that 
she  had  miscarried;  none  thought  it  unlikely. 
Things  were  said  and  tales  were  told  of  Frey 
which  amazed  him  while  they  made  him 
angry. 

"At  this  rate,"  he  said  to  himself,  "I  shall 
be  an  atheist  or  a  Christian.  Would  that 
King  Olaf  could  hear  me  say  so.  He  would 
countermand  his  rope  and  make  me  one  of 
his  household." 


138  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Then  he  found  out  that  it  interested  him 
more  to  hear  tales  of  Sigrid  than  it  disgusted 
him;  and  he  said  to  himself  then,  "Frey  and 
I  shall  be  fighting  for  Sigrid  one  of  these 
days.  I  learn  that  I  am  in  love  with  her." 
But  he  knew  that  it  would  be  a  shame  to  tell 
her  so,  and  resolved  that  she  should  learn 
nothing  about  it. 

There  was  never  a  merrier  winter  In  that 
village,  and  never  a  man  more  beloved  than 
Gunnar  was.  He  was  no  skald,  but  his  tales 
were  without  end,  and  so  were  his  jokes.  He 
had  had  his  share  of  travel,  and  now  they 
had  their  portion  in  it.  He  told  them  of 
Micklegarth  and  of  the  great  King  of  the 
Greeks.  He  said  that  there  was  a  temple 
there  dedicated  to  divine  wisdom,  which  was 
a  paragon  and  wonder  of  the  world.  The 
king  did  sacrifice  there  every  day  to  his  god 
— and  there  was  nothing  in  the  temple  less 
precious  than  gold.     He  spoke  of  that  other 


THE  WINTER  FEASTS  159 

Garth  in  the  North,  a  Russian  city,  which  was 
envious  of  the  Greek  kingdom,  and  wishful 
to  rival  it.  Then  of  Frey's  worship  he  had 
something  to  say.  In  Iceland,  he  said,  Frey 
was  worshiped,  and  there  had  been  a  priest 
of  his  there  called  Ravenkeld,  who  had  not 
only  built  a  house  for  him  with  five  or  six 
images  of  Frey  set  round  in  a  circle,  but  had 
had  a  famous  stalhon  which  he  shared  with 
the  god.  No  one  but  Ravenkeld  or  Frey 
might  ride  this  horse,  which  also  had  a  stud 
of  twelve  mares  for  his  own  use  and  pleas- 
ure. Ravenkeld  had  made  a  vow  that  he 
would  have  the  life  of  any  man  who  should 
ride  the  horse ;  and  he  kept  it,  though  it  cost 
him  all  that  he  had.  For  once  there  came  to 
him  a  certain  man  called  Thoreir,  who  was 
wishful  to  serve  him.  Ravenkeld  made  a 
shepherd  of  him,  and  set  him  also  to  keep 
guard  over  Frey's  horse  and  his  mares,  warn- 
ing him  of  the  vow  he  had  made.  Then,  on  a 
day,  thirty  sheep  were  lost  and  Thoreir  must 


140  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

ride  far  to  find  them.  Never  a  mare  of  the 
twelve  could  he  come  near,  but  Frey's  horse 
stood;  so  he  saddled  him  and  rode  him  all 
day.  Ravenkeld  came  to  know  about  it  and 
went  out  to  find  Thoreir,  who  was  lying  on  the 
stone  wall,  counting  his  sheep  over. 

"How  came  you  to  ride  my  horse,"  said 
Ravenkeld,  "when  I  warned  you  to  ride  any 
other  but  him?" 

Thoreir  told  him  how  it  was.  Then  Rav- 
enkeld said : 

"I  am  sorry,  but  we  make  vows  one  day  and 
find  them  heavy  another." 

Then  he  drove  his  spear  through  Thoreir's 
back  and  slew  him.  He  paid  for  doing  that, 
for  he  was  outlawed  by  Thoreir's  kindred  at 
the  Thing,  and  they  came  upon  him  unawares, 
and  pierced  his  legs  at  the  tendons  of  the 
knees  and  hung  him  up  by  them  for  a  day. 
When  they  came  to  take  him  down  the  blood 
was  in  his  eyes  and  he  was  as  near  dead  as 
might    be.     Then   they   banished   him    with 


THE  WINTER  FEASTS  141 

hardly  any  money  or  goods ;  but  yet  he  pros- 
pered and  got  his  own  back  again.  But  when 
he  was  restored  to  his  ease  and  wealth  he  said 
that  he  had  no  opinion  of  Frey  at  all,  and 
would  have  no  more  to  do  with  him.  He 
broke  up  the  images  and  turned  the  god's 
house  into  a  byre  for  his  cows,  and  had  no  re- 
ligion thereafter  that  ever  Gunnar  heard  tell 
of. 

"And  that,"  he  said,  "is  the  way  of  men. 
They  make  a  god  first  and  unmake  him  after- 
wards— and  all  that  is  foolishness." 

But  the  people  said,  "How  can  that  be  when 
we  know  very  well  what  Frey  here  does  for 
us,  sending  the  rain  in  proper  time  upon  the 
earth?" 

"Now  tell  me  this,"  said  Gunnar;  "do  you 
pray  to  Frey  for  rain  when  the  wind  is  in  the 
east?" 

"We  do  not,"  they  said,  "for  that  would  be 
waste  of  breath." 

"So  it  would,"  said  Gunnar,  "and  so  also 


14*^  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

if  the  wind  blow  from  the  south.  For  then 
the  rain  will  come  of  itself." 

'That  would  be  Frey's  doing,  we  hold," 
said  they.     Then  Gunnar  smiled. 

"You  are  lucky,"  he  said,  "and  so  is  Frey." 

They  always  took  Frey  back  after  the 
feasts,  two  or  three  men  bearing  him  up  be- 
tween them;  and  many  a  tumble  they  had  in 
the  snowdrifts,  if  they  were  not  very  sure- 
footed, through  drink  or  otherwise.  One 
night,  when  they  had  some  way  to  go,  Gunnar 
picked  up  Sigrid  and  carried  her  through  the 
worst  of  the  drifts. 

"Oh,  you  should  not,  you  should  not,"  she 
said;  but  he  laughed. 

"You  are  so  small  a  thing,"  he  said,  "it 
would  be  a  shame." 

But  she  hid  her  face  in  his  shoulder  and 
said  again  that  he  should  not  carry  her.  He 
had  a  great  mind  to  kiss  her,  but  he  did  not  do 
it  just  then. 


THE  WINTER  FEASTS  143 

"Well,"  said  he,  "let  your  husband  carry 
you."  And  then  he  called  out,  ''Hi  you, 
Frey,  come  and  carry  Sigrid  through  the 
snow." 

But  just  then  Frey  and  his  bearers  were  all 
rolling  in  the  snow  together. 

"You  see  how  it  is  with  poor  Frey,"  Gunnar 
said.  "He  has  had  too  much  to  drink  and 
can't  carry  himself,  so  what  would  he  do  if  he 
had  you,  too?" 

After  that  he  got  into  the  way  of  carrying 
her,  and  she  grew  accustomed  to  it,  looked 
for  it,  and  held  her  arms  out  for  him  to  lift 
her  when  they  came  out  of  the  feast. 

Gunnar  enjoyed  himself,  but  did  not  tell 
her  so,  nor  speak  of  it  at  all.  He  took  it  as 
a  thing  of  course  that  he  should  serve  her,  and 
she  accepted  it.  But  there  was  no  love-mak- 
ing, even  though  the  days  were  dark,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done  out  of  doors. 
He  said  to  himself : 

"She  is  Frey's  wife,  or  believes  herself  so. 


144  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

I  don't  care  a  flick  of  the  fingers  for  Frey,  but 
for  her  I  do  care." 

They  were  thrown  very  much  together,  and 
found  nothing  amiss  with  that.  Gunnar 
talked  to  her  of  his  travels  and  told  her  stories 
as  they  sat  by  the  fire.  He  had  a  happy  way 
with  him  which  made  all  people  like  him  and 
give  him  their  confidence.  He  neither  took 
liberties  nor  allowed  them;  but  if  you  were 
simple  and  gave  yourself  no  airs  he  was  very 
gentle  and  good-humored.  Sigrid  had  no 
suspicions  of  him,  nor  need  for  any.  He 
would  be  incapable  of  doing  her  any  harm. 
It  was  because  he  was  afraid  of  making  her 
unhappy  that  he  left  off  teasing  her  about 
Frey.  At  first  he  had  been  rather  given  to  it, 
but  he  saw  that  she  was  troubled  by  it,  and  did 
not  know  what  to  say.  Then  he  stopped  his 
gibes  and  mockery. 


XIII 
Frey  Makes  Ready  to  Go  His  Rounds 

BY  slow  degrees  the  winter  wore  out;  the 
clouds  broke  up,  and  the  thick  snow- 
fleece  was  pitted  all  over  as  if  it  had  been 
a  blanket  which  moths  had  fretted.  The  days 
grew  longer ;  men  looked  up,  feeling  the  sun ; 
the  thatches  began  to  drip,  and  then  to  run, 
and  to  dig  for  themselves  deep  channels  in 
the  snow.  Then  began  roof-slides  by  broad 
blocks  at  a  time,  and  a  man  might  be  buried 
in  slush  before  he  knew  it. 

Sigrid  said  that  they  must  make  ready 
Frey's  wagon  for  the  road,  and  told  Gunnar 
where  it  was  stored  and  asked  him  to  fetch 
it  out.  As  soon  as  the  buds  began  to  swell 
on  the  trees  they  must  be  off.  Gunnar  w^as 
glad  of  some  work,  and  soon  had  the  wagon 

145 


146  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

out  of  the  shedding  and  haled  it  into  the  fore- 
court. 

This  wagon  was  a  gaudy  affair,  being 
painted  all  over  in  red,  blue  and  yellow.  The 
wheels  were  red  and  so  was  the  pole.  White 
oxen  drew  it,  which  had  red  trappings  and 
brazen  stars  on  their  foreheads.  Upright 
poles  at  the  four  corners  of  the  wagon  carried 
a  wooden  canopy,  and  held  rods  also  for  the 
curtains  which  shut  Frey  off  from  mortal  eyes 
until  such  times  as  he  would  appear  and,  hav- 
ing been  propitiated  with  offerings,  suffer 
himself  to  be  carried  into  the  fields.  Over 
these  curtains  Sigrid  was  now  busy.  They 
were  green  and  had  dragons,  the  sun,  the  moon 
and  stars,  and  runes  also  sewn  upon  them,  of 
red  and  white  colors.  The  inside  of  the  tent 
which  these  curtains  made  was  a  fair  cham- 
ber. In  the  forepart  Frey  stood  when  he  was 
traveling;  in  the  afterpart  was  his  bed  where 
he  lay  at   night.     But  the  parts  were  not 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        147 

divided  off  There  was  no  bed-chamber  for 
him  as  he  had  in  his  winter  house.  The  men 
who  went  with  the  wagon,  and  tended  the 
oxen,  must  lie  out  in  the  open  to  sleep,  or  in 
the  sacking  slung  beneath  where  the  beast- 
fodder  was  carried. 

Gunnar  thought  that  he  would  have  no  men 
to  help  him,  and  Sigrid  said,  "Oh,  no,  we  want 
no  others.     With  you  to  help  all  will  go  well." 

"You  trust  me,  I  see,"  said  Gunnar,  and 
Sigrid  looked  at  him  with  friendly  eyes. 

"How  should  I  not?  Are  you  not  the 
trustiest  of  men?" 

"If  you  were  not  so  kind  to  me,"  he  told  her, 
"perhaps  I  should  not  be  so  trusty.  And  it 
may  be  that  we  should  both  be  the  better  for  it. 
But  I  have  a  soft  heart,  and  you  have  found 
that  out." 

"I  know  nothing  of  your  heart,"  she  said. 
"That  is  the  last  thing  that  I  know  about 
vou." 


14*8  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"So  be  it,"  said  Gunnar.  ''Now  tell  me 
what  you  wish  to  be  at  with  this  wonderful 
affair." 

It  did  not  suit  her  very  well  just  then  to 
be  talking  of  the  wagon,  so  she  crossed  her 
knee  and  clasped  it  with  her  hands. 

"The  heart  of  a  man  is  like  the  snow  just 
now,  I  think.  It  is  quickly  melted  where  the 
sun  strikes  it  or  the  rain  falls  upon  it.  It  is 
easy  to  make  a  dint  in  it.  But  below  that 
there  is  ice.  In  small  matters  a  man  will  be 
kind  enough ;  but  there  may  be  great  matters 
which  may  break  themselves  to  pieces  against 
him  before  he  will  be  moved." 

Gunnar  made  no  answer,  but  busied  him- 
self examining  the  wagon.  He  broke  a  bub- 
ble of  paint  with  his  thumb,  and  said : 

"Look  at  that  now.  There's  bad  workman- 
ship for  you." 

"It  is  exactly  the  contrary  with  women," 
said  Sigrid.  "A  girl's  heart  Is  like  a  spring 
which  is  guarded  by  overhanging  snow  and  a 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        149 

thin  film  of  ice.  The  first  thaw  breaks  that 
through,  and  the  water  wells  up  warm.  But 
the  film,  while  it  remains  there,  is  respectable ; 
for  it  denotes  that  the  spring  beneath  is  to  be 
guarded  from  defiling  hands." 

Gunnar  was  very  busy.  He  ran  his  hand 
up  and  down  the  pole. 

"The  man  who  painted  this  machine,"  he 
said,  ''was  a  botcher.  He  has  never  so  much 
as  planed  this  pole.  It  is  as  rough  as  an  earl's 
tongue.     Just  you  feel  it,  sweetheart." 

She  was  ofiFended:  'Tf  you  don't  care  to 
listen  to  me,  I  don't  care,  either,  to  observe 
your  wagon.  It  is  a  strange  way  to  woo  a 
sweetheart  to  have  her  in  contempt." 

"My  dear  one,"  said  Gunnar — and  now  he 
looked  at  her — "it  is  true  that  you  know  noth- 
ing of  a  man's  heart,  which  moves  him  to  do 
things  rather  than  to  talk  about  them.  And 
this  wagon  is  not  mine,  but  Frey's,  and  I  am 
to  work  upon  it  by  your  desire." 

Her  eyes  filled  with  tears.     "Ah,"  she  said, 


160  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"do  I  not  know  whose  wagon  it  is  ?  Is  this  a 
time  to  remind  me  of  it?"  Gunnar  looked 
quickly  about  him.  Nobody  was  by.  So 
then  he  went  to  Sigrid,  and  put  his  hand  on 
her  shoulder. 

"Don't  cry,  pretty  one,"  he  said,  "otherwise 
there  will  be  the  mischief  between  Frey  and 
me." 

Then  he  kissed  her;  and  that  was  the  first 
time  that  ever  he  did  it,  strange  as  it  may 
appear.  She  sat  very  still,  and  all  drawn  up 
into  a  bunch,  as  if  she  felt  chilly,  which  she 
did  for  a  minute.  Then  she  went  into  Frey's 
house  and  stayed  there  for  a  good  time.  Gun- 
nar shook  his  head,  and  went  to  fetch  the  tools 
that  he  needed  for  cleaning  the  paint  off  the 
wagon. 

He  took  a  long  time  over  it,  and  was  very 
happy  to  be  so  busy.  He  cleaned  off  all  the 
old  paint,  which  was  many  coats  thick,  and 
smoothed  the  wood  to  his  fancy.     Then  he  set 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        161 

to  work  with  new  colors  and  was  at  it  many- 
days  from  dawn  to  dusk.  It  began  to  look 
very  splendid,  with  a  green  ground,  and  yel- 
low wheels  and  pole,  and  with  flowers,  trees, 
birds  and  beasts  upon  all  that  in  blue,  red  and 
white.  He  painted  also  the  sky  and  the  sun 
and  rivers  winding  among  meadows.  Then 
he  had  the  sea,  with  ships  upon  it,  because 
Sigrid  did  not  know  what  the  sea  was  like. 
And  he  wrote  runes  all  round  the  panels  of 
the  wagon,  sayings  such  as  were  common  in 
his  country,  such  as  "Bare  is  Back  without 
Brother  Behind  it,"  and  so  on. 

Sigrid  was  much  the  better  for  being  kissed, 
though  she  was  very  careful  not  to  say  so. 
She  thought  that  Gunnar  would  not  perceive 
it,  but  he  did.  Her  eyes  were  larger  and 
softer ;  her  color  was  higher ;  she  was  quieter 
in  her  ways,  not  so  restless,  and  certainly  not 
so  testy.  She  used  to  sit  contentedly  with  her 
curtains  while  he  worked  at  his  painting,  and 
could  now  admire  what  he  did.     She  talked 


152  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

no  more  about  the  difference  between  a  man's 
heart  and  a  woman's,  perhaps  because  she 
knew  more.  It  was  not  hard  to  discern  these 
changes  in  her. 

"This  wagon,"  said  Gunnar,  "is  a  paragon. 
It  is  my  masterpiece."  The  time  had  come 
when  all  was  done,  even  to  the  hangings  of 
Frey's  bed,  and  the  containing  boards  of  the 
same. 

"Now,  sweetheart,"  said  he,  "it  is  for  you 
to  consider  whether  we  shall  not  give  your  lord 
a  lick  of  paint.  To  my  eye  he  would  be  the 
better  for  it,  but  you  know  his  fancy  better 
than  I  do." 

She  said  shortly,  "He  is  well  enough." 
She  could  not  bear  his  jokes  about  Frey  just 
now. 

"He  is  not  then,"  said  Gunnar.  "He  will 
look  shabby  in  his  new  wagon.  Just  try  him 
for  yourself  and  see." 

She  was  most  unwilling,  but  yet  she  allowed 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        158 

him  to  put  Frey  up  in  the  forepart  of  the  wain. 

"Look  at  him,"  said  Gunnar.  "Look  at  the 
brown  blur  upon  his  neck;  and  see  how 
smeared  his  cheeks  are.  There  is  no  shine 
left.  To  my  thinking  he  is  failing  in  one  eye. 
It  is  like  the  eye  of  a  dead  fish.  There  should 
be  new  gilding  on  his  cone.  Strange  how  a 
new  wagon  shows  him  up." 

She  was  not  looking  at  Frey  at  all ;  but  when 
Gunnar  had  him  down  in  the  court  and  was 
about  to  take  his  clothes  off,  she  sprang  for- 
ward with  flaming  cheeks  and  dangerous  eyes. 

"I  dare  you  to  touch  him." 

Gunnar  stood.  "As  you  please,"  he  said. 
"It  is  nothing  to  me.  Let  him  go  bleary  to  his 
work." 

She  shifted  about  and  paced  the  court  un- 
easily. "He  is  very  well  as  he  is.  If  any- 
thing is  to  be  done  to  him  I  will  do  it." 

"As  you  please,"  said  Gunnar  again,  and 
left  the  court.  He  went  out  into  the  forest 
where  the  birds  were  singing.     He  looked  to 


164  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

see  if  any  were  nesting  yet,  and  was  away 
three  or  four  hours. 

When  he  came  back  Frey  was  in  his  house 
again,  and  he  examined  what  Sigrid  had  done. 
She  had  w^ashed  him;  Gunnar  thought  he 
looked  sadly  bleached  about  the  chaps,  and 
there  was  flaws  in  his  beard.  His  neck  was 
pinker.     She  had  tried  to  repaint  his  right  eye. 

While  he  was  looking  at  Frey  Sigrid  came 
in.  She  was  flushed,  and  prepared  to  be 
angry  in  a  moment. 

"I  suppose  you  think  I  have  made  matters 
worse,"  she  said. 

"What  do  you  think  yourself?"  he  asked 
her. 

"He  will  do  well  enough,"  she  answered. 
But  he  told  her : 

"You  have  not  helped  his  eye-works.  He 
is  looking  two  ways  at  once." 

"It  is  what  you  would  say." 

"It  is  what  I  do  say,"  he  answered,  "because 
it  is  true." 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        155 

"I  know  what  you  think  of  him,"  she  cried 
out  sharply.  "You  have  no  need  to  tell 
me." 

Gunnar  replied,  "He  looked  shabby  be- 
fore, and  in  want  of  a  lick ;  but  you  have  made 
him  look  like  a  boiled  goose." 

Sigrid  was  seriously  vexed.  She  looked  as 
if  she  were  all  over  spines,  like  a  teasel.  But 
the  worst  of  it  was  that  she  knew  Gunnar 
was  right,  as  well  as  he  did  himself.  Mean- 
time Gunnar  walked  comfortably  about,  by 
and  large,  while  she  stood  opening  and  shut- 
ting her  hands. 

"You  are  hard  to  please,"  she  said  at  last, 
in  a  dry  voice.  "Yet  I  do  think  that  I  have 
mishandled  his  right  eye.  Perhaps  you  will 
mend  it  for  me." 

"Ah,"  said  Gunnar,  "and  for  him,  too,  I 
will  mend  it,  though  he  has  no  liking  for  me. 
Look  at  him,  I  ask  you,  from  where  you  stand, 
and  then  from  where  I  do.  Whereas  his  eyes 
used  to  follow  us  about  to  see  what  we  were 


156  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

doing,  now  he  sees  nothing  of  us  at  all. 
Kindly  look  for  yourself." 

She  did  as  he  told  her.  She  examined  Frey 
very  carefully  from  where  she  stood  and  then 
crossed  the  floor  and  stood  by  Gunnar  and 
looked  at  Frey. 

"Well?"  said  Gunnar. 

Her  answer  was  not  in  words,  but  she 
looked  up  at  Gunnar  with  a  faint  smile.  So 
then  he  kissed  her  again,  and  that  kiss  was  a 
long  one  and  lasted  some  time. 

'Trey  cannot  see,"  she  said  presently,  *'and 
it  is  my  fault.     Mend  his  eye  for  me." 

"Why,"  said  Gunnar,  "do  you  want  him  to 
see  us?" 

She  said,  "Not  always — but  sometimes  it 
doesn't  matter." 

Gunnar  said  that  he  would  put  the  eye  right, 
and,  more  than  that,  he  would  freshen  Frey 
up  altogether.  He  pointed  out  many  flaws 
in  his  painting. 

Sigrid  was  not  in  the  mood  to  deny  him 


FREY  MAKES  READY  TO  GO        157 

anything  just  now.  She  agreed  readily,  and 
was  going  away.  But  she  came  back 
again. 

"Promise  me  one  thing,"  she  said. 

"I  will  promise  you  a  dozen  things,"  said 
Gunnar. 

"One  only.  It  is  that  you  will  only  paint 
what  you  can  see." 

Gunnar,  who  was  very  quick,  said,  "I  will 
obey  you ;  but  in  that  case  you  must  cover  him 
in  a  blanket,  lest  I  spoil  his  clothes." 

She  brought  him  a  blanket,  and  left  him. 
Gunnar  put  Frey's  eye  in  order,  and  touched 
up  his  cheeks  and  scarlet  nostrils  for  him. 
He  sized  the  cone  for  gilding,  and  put  a  tinge 
more  red  into  his  beard. 

Then  he  looked  at  him  with  his  head  on 
one  side  and  one  eye  shut. 

"You  are  a  fine  figure  of  a  god,  Frey.  We 
are  something  alike,  I  believe.  But  for  all 
that  I  see  that  you  don't  love  me." 

He  was  at  the  end  of  the  room  as  he  stood ; 


158  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

but  for  all  that  Frey  had  him  in  view,  and 
looked  furious. 

After  that  there  was  nothing  to  do  but 
wait  the  moment  when  Frey  should  start  on 
his  rounds. 


XIV 
Frey  Starts  on  His  Rounds 

THE  weather  was  mild  and  open  when 
Frey  set  out  in  his  wagon,  and  the  roads 
were  heavy.  They  plunged  into  the  forest 
ways,  where  the  tracks  were  swimming  in 
melting  snow,  and  the  air  was  rife  with  drip- 
ping trees.  But  the  birds  were  all  awake,  the 
buds  were  shining,  there  was  spring  in  the 
air.  Gunnar  walked  beside  the  oxen  and 
touched  their  necks  now  and  then  with  the 
nodding  point  of  his  switch ;  Frey  kept  his  bed, 
and  Sigrid  trudged  beside  Gunnar,  heedless  of 
the  wet  and  mire.  Sometimes  she  took  his 
hand,  sometimes  his  arm ;  sometimes  his  arm 
supported  her.  She  was  very  happy,  and 
talked  and  laughed  as  she  had  never  before. 
Now  she  could  laugh  at  Frey,  it  seems. 

169 


160  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"Frey  is  snoozing,"  she  said.  "He  doesn't 
see  what  we  see." 

"No,"  said  Giinnar ;  "but  let  him  alone.  He 
will  have  to  work  by-and-by.  It  is  no  light 
matter  to  order  the  yearly  affairs  of  the 
earth." 

"No,  indeed,"  she  said.  "Besides,  you  have 
cut  off  his  blood-offerings  which  he  loves." 

"He  will  be  all  the  better  for  that,"  Gunnar 
replied.     "Such  food  makes  fat." 

The  first  village  which  they  reached  re- 
ceived them  with  acclamations.  Children 
with  flowers,  women  with  their  children,  men 
with  their  women  were  there  to  receive  them. 
They  crowded  the  green  track,  they  came  fly- 
ing through  the  forest  on  all  sides.  The  oxen 
trudged  over  budded  boughs  and  the  first- 
born of  flowers.  The  curtains  of  the  forepart 
were  open.  Sigrid  sat  in  the  wagon  by  the 
side  of  Frey,  who  shook  on  his  perch.  The 
people  were  frantic,  and  many  tried  to  climb 


FREY  STARTS  ON  HIS  ROUNDS      161 

the  cart  that  they  might  touch  Frey's  new 
cloak,  or  kiss  the  budded  staff  in  his  hand. 
Gunnar  had  all  to  do  to  keep  them  free  of  the 
wheels.  The  elders  of  the  village  were  be- 
fore the  first  house  and  turned  when  the 
wagon  drew  nigh  to  walk  before  it  to  the  god- 
house.  It  was  late  by  the  time  they  had 
reached  it  and  got  Frey  carried  in ;  but  there 
were  torchlights  everywhere  flaring  about  like 
fiery  serpents,  and  burning  all  the  pools  of 
water  till  they  looked  like  melted  gold. 

The  people  told  of  great  sacrifice  in  the 
morning,  a  boy  and  girl  who  were  but  just 
mature,  and  a  foreign  woman  who  had  been 
found  lost  and  benighted  in  the  time  of  snow\ 
Then  Gunnar  made  it  plain  to  them  that  these 
things  were  not  to  be. 

"Frey,"  he  said,  "utterly  abhors  this  blood- 
shedding,  which,  if  you  persist  in  it,  will  fairly 
ruin  your  tillage  of  the  year.  I  know  what 
he  will  do,  for  he  has  done  it  already.     He 


163  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

will  turn  his  back  upon  your  fields,  and  noth- 
ing will  move  him.  Be  warned  therefore,  be- 
fore it  is  too  late.'' 

The  people  were  dismayed,  and  many  mur- 
mured.    Then  Gunnar  said: 

"Bring  me  your  victims,  and  I  will  show 
you  the  mind  of  Frey;"  which  was  done. 
The  victims,  bound  tightly  with  withy-bands, 
were  set  before  him.  With  his  knife  Gunnar 
cut  their  bonds. 

"You  are  free,"  he  said,  "and  no  one  dare 
touch  you,  for  Frey  wills  it.  He  will  bless 
these  fields,  seeing  that  he  has  blessed  you, 
who  are  more  to  him  than  fields." 

Sigrid,  who  was  standing  close  by,  now 
said,  "He  speaks  truly  the  mind  of  Frey,  as  I 
myself  can  testify." 

So  that  year  there  were  no  bloody  rites,  but 
all  other  things  were  done  as  they  had  been 
from  time  out  of  mind.  They  carried  Frey 
about  their  fields,  and  said  prayers  and  sang 
his  praises;  and  so  they  went  on  their  way 


FREY  STARTS  ON  HIS  ROUNDS      165 

through  the  forest  from  village  to  village. 
Everywhere  Gunnar  stopped  the  sacrifices, 
and  everywhere  Sigrid  upheld  him.  In  time 
she  was  even  beforehand  with  him,  and  much 
more  vehement  than  he  had  ever  been.  He 
admired  the  spirit  in  which  she  did  it,  but  ad- 
vised her  to  be  prudent. 

'If  you  say  too  much,"  he  told  her,  "they 
will  believe  you  to  be  under  my  thumb." 

She  did  not  reply  to  that  at  first ;  but  pres- 
ently she  said,  "If  they  charged  me  with  that 
I  should  not  gainsay  it." 

He  smiled  with  his  eyes  as  well  as  his  lips. 
"You  might  find  it  a  softer  one  than  Prey's," 
he  said. 

She  turned  away  her  face,  but  gave  him  her 
hand  to  hold.  He  began  to  talk  his  nonsense, 
setting  himself  the  task  of  making  her  laugh ; 
for  he  thought  to  himself,  "They  are  better 
when  they  laugh,  for  they  cannot  do  it  unless 
their  hearts  are  light." 


XV 

The  Snowstorm 

AFTER  many  weeks'  journeying  in  dense 
woodland  country,  Frey's  wagon  was 
now  to  cross  a  range  of  high  mountains. 
The  forest  grew  Hghter,  the  way  was  steadily 
uphill,  the  wind  blew  cooler,  the  trees  were 
more  backward.  At  last  they  were  fairly  in 
the  uplands  among  boulders  of  rock,  with  here 
and  there  a  few  pines,  or  a  grove  of  birch. 
It  became  like  winter  again,  except  for  the 
length  of  daylight. 

There  was  a  rough  road  by  which  the 
mountains  were  to  be  passed.  They  reached 
it  at  sunset,  and  it  seemed  likely  they  would 
have  to  spend  the  night  upon  the  top  where 
the  snow  was  still  deep.     It  began  to  blow 

164 


THE  SNOWSTORM  165 

fitfully  from  the  east  and  north,  and  Gunnar 
did  not  like  the  look  of  things  at  all. 

"Sweetheart,"  he  said,  "we  had  best  shelter 
hereabout,  for  I  doubt  it  is  coming  on  to 
blow,  and  we  might  have  snowstorms  up 
above." 

"No,"  said  Sigrid,  "I  feel  sure  we  had  best 
get  on.  They  await  us  on  the  further  side  of 
the  mountain,  but  a  little  way  down." 

"As  you  will,"  said  Gunnar;  "only  keep 
yourself  warm  inside,  and  make  your  curtains 
as  snug  as  you  can." 

He  had  spoken  truly.  The  wind  increased, 
and  the  powdery  snow  began  flitting  in 
wreaths  over  the  frozen  ground.  Gunnar  put 
a  blanket  round  Sigrid  and  drew  his  coat 
closer  about  him.  The  oxen  plodded  on  with- 
out taking  notice.  But  both  wind  and  snow 
were  in  their  faces,  and  it  was  a  slow  busi- 
ness. 

Gunnar  kept  his  e^^e  on  the  look  of  the  sky. 
He  saw  masses  of  dark  cloud  behind  the  moun- 


166  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

tain  range,  inky  toward  the  middle,  brown  at 
the  edges. 

"There's  a  mort  of  snow  to  come,"  he  said. 

It  grew  dark  quickly,  and  he  sent  Sigrid 
into  the  wagon. 

"Get  to  bed,"  he  told  her,  "and  wrap  your- 
self up  warmly.  The  first  good  rock  I  come 
to  I  shall  shelter  the  cattle." 

"And  what  will  you  do  yourself?"  she 
wanted  to  know. 

"I  shall  turn  the  wagon  back  to  the  wind," 
he  said,  "and  cover  the  oxen.  Then  I  will  do 
the  best  for  myself  I  can." 

She  wasn't  satisfied  and  seemed  unwilling 
to  leave  him,  but  he  told  her  again  to  go  to 
bed. 

"Well,"  she  said,  "I  will  go,  but  you  shall 
kiss  me  first." 

It  was  the  first  time  she  had  ever  asked  that 
of  him,  and  he  gave  her  what  she  wanted, 
though  he  had  other  things  to  think  about 
then,  and  plenty  of  them. 


THE  SNOWSTORM  167 

She  went  away  after  that,  and  he  trudged 
along.  The  snow  was  coming  thick  now;  he 
felt  it  like  gnats  against  his  face,  and  knew 
that  his  beard  was  stiff  with  it.  The  front  of 
his  clothes  was  like  a  board,  and  his  knees 
ached  with  the  strain.  The  oxen  stopped 
several  times ;  but  he  lured  them  on,  and  often 
gave  a  hand  to  the  wheel.  But  he  had  to  stop 
as  often  to  let  them  breathe  themselves,  and 
every  time  he  did  so,  they  were  the  harder  to 
move.  The  fury  of  the  wind  drove  the  snow 
in  wreaths ;  banks  of  it  formed,  through  which 
the  cattle  stumbled,  or  failed  to  stumble. 
When  they  failed  he  had  to  kick  a  passage  for 
them. 

The  point  came  beyond  which  he  could 
not  get  them  to  move.  It  was  at  a  bend  of 
the  road  between  high  rocks.  The  wind  came 
down  the  channel  in  fury,  the  snow  was  blind- 
ing. He  felt,  for  he  could  not  see,  the  trem- 
bling beasts,  and  understood  that  there  was  no 


168  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

moving  them.  Sigrid  within  the  curtains 
made  no  sign.  Gunnar  considered  that  here 
they  must  remain  until  the  storm  ceased. 

He  found  stones  for  the  hind  wheels  of  the 
wain,  unyoked  the  oxen  and  led  them  out  of 
the  fury  of  the  weather.  He  sought  in  the 
choked  underpart  for  their  coverings,  but 
could  not  find  them  there.  They  would  be  in 
the  wagon,  and  he  must  have  them  by  all 
means.  He  gave  them  fodder,  however,  and 
then  wondered  what  he  should  do  to  get  their 
clothing,  and  to  help  himself.  He  was  not 
cold,  for  his  exertions  had  been  too  severe,  but 
he  would  soon  become  so.  Should  he  make 
himself  a  rampart  of  snow  and  crouch  under 
that  ?  He  knew  there  was  danger  of  swoon- 
ing, and  rejected  the  thought.  Should  he  then 
stamp  up  and  down,  flapping  his  arms  until 
daybreak?     He  knew  that  he  could  not. 

"It  seems  I  am  to  perish  for  the  sake  of  a 
wooden  god!"  His  heart  grew  hot  within 
him.     "Accursed  idol,"  he  said,  "if  I  had  you 


THE  SNOWSTORM  169 

here  I  would  fight  it  out  with  you!  And  I 
vow  that  if  I  come  through  this  pass  with 
safety,  and  see  again  my  own  land,  I  will  take 
King  Olaf 's  religion,  which  does  not  send  fair 
women  to  sleep  with  painted  stocks." 

"Sigrid  has  little  love  to  spare  for  the  like 
of  me,"  he  said  aloud.  ''What  knows  she 
whether  I  live  or  die?  There  she  snuggles 
asleep  with  Frey  in  her  arms." 

He  heard  the  voice  of  Sigrid  then,  with 
tears  in  it.  "No,  no,  I  do  not.  Come  in  and 
you  shall  see." 

He  stared  before  him.  "Sigrid,  are  you 
awake  ?" 

She  answered,  "I  am  awake,  and  wait  for 
you." 

"Then,"  said  he,  "I  come,  but  first  give  me 
covering  for  the  cattle  or  they  will  perish,  for 
they  are  now  running  sweat." 

"Stay,"  she  said;  "you  shall  have  them; 
but  then  you  must  come." 

He  was  now  on  fire,  and  trembling,  but 


170  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

he  waited  while  she  struck  tinder  and  blew  a 
flame  from  which  she  lit  a  candle.  After  a 
time  which  was  enough  to  cool  any  one,  but 
did  not  cool  him,  she  handed  him  out  the  wrap- 
pings. He  made  the  beasts  as  snug  as  he 
could,  and  when  he  had  done  the  candle  was 
still  burning  fitfully. 


XVI 

Marriage  of  Sigrid 

GUNNAR  stood  by  the  wagon,  backing 
the  storm.  He  waited  for  Sigrid  to  call 
him.  He  could  see  her  shadow  moving  about, 
and  that  she  seemed  very  busy.  His  temper 
began  to  rise.  "A\^hat  is  the  matter  now? 
Have  I  not  earned  shelter  yet  ?  Or  does  she 
wait  until  I  am  frost-bitten?" 

Her  voice  came  scared  from  the  curtains. 
"Are  vou  there,  Gunnar?" 

"Ha !  Am  I  here  ?  I  am  a  hillock  of  snow. 
There  is  nothing  left  of  me  that  is  not  ice. 
Have  you  no  ruth,  then?" 

Her  voice  had  great  fear  in  it.  "I  am 
afraid  of  Frey.     He  is  very  angry." 

Then  Gunnar's  wrath  overflowed  and  was 
bitter  in  the  mouth.     "What,  is  Frey  angry? 

171 


17«  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Ah,  but  I  am  angry,  too.  I'll  deal  with  Frey. 
Let  me  get  at  him." 

He  climbed  the  wagon  wheel  and  put  his 
head  and  shoulders  in  the  curtains.  He  saw 
Frey  standing  in  the  cart.  A\'ith  a  lurch  for- 
ward, he  got  him  by  the  beard  and  pulled  him 
over  toward  himself.  "Now,  Frey,  you  and 
I  are  at  grips.     Come,  out  Avith  you." 

He  now  had  Frey  under  the  arms,  and  was 
hauling  him  out.  When  he  had  got  so  much 
of  him  out  as  was  enough,  he  let  go,  and  Frey, 
overbalancing,  fell  upon  his  head  into  the 
snow.  The  gleaming  of  the  candle  showed 
him  the  ax  hanging  on  its  accustomed  nail. 

'T'll  take  that,"  he  said,  and  got  down  with 
it  in  his  hand. 

Now  he  set  Frey  up  in  the  snow  and  took 
him  by  the  ears.  Frey  had  his  crown  on,  but 
none  of  his  clothes.  Seeing  him  now  as  he 
really  was,  Gunnar's  blood  boiled  within  him. 

"Dangerous,  malignant  idol,"  he  said,  with 
his  teeth  clenched,  "whether  you  are  devil  or 


MARRIAGE  OF  SIGRID  173 

stock  you  shall  be  neither  within  these  few 
minutes.  To  what  monstrous  pass  have  you 
brought  us,  to  keep  true  lovers  apart!  You, 
to  keep  lovers  apart!  To  what  shameful 
drudgery  you  turn  this  sweet  woman.  You, 
to  drudge  a  woman !  Ah,  block  of  abomina- 
tion, the  one  good  thing  you  have  done  is  to 
turn  my  heart  to  a  faith  that  is  cleaner  than 
yours.  If  you  have  set  me  free,  now  it  is  my 
turn.  Here's  for  Sigrid — and  to  let  the  fiend 
out  of  the  tree." 

With  that  he  swung  the  ax  high  in  the  air 
and  brought  it  down  upon  the  head  of  Frey. 
Frey  was  cloven  from  the  crown  to  the  chine, 
and  fell  neatly  in  halves  on  either  side  of  him. 
Gunnar  looked  up.  The  cloudwrack  had 
blown  over,  the  sky  was  clear  and  gemmed 
with  stars. 

"Frey  has  ridden  ofif  on  the  storm,"  he  said. 
Then  he  called  aloud,  "Sigrid !" 

And  her  faint  voice  answered,  "Gunnar." 

He  climbed  into  the  wagon. 


XVII 
Morrow  of  the  Storm 

THE  storm  had  abated  in  the  night,  the 
weather  of  the  morning  was  fair,  with  a 
wind  from  the  south.  Gunnar,  when  he  went 
out  and  looked  about  him,  thought  that  it 
would  be  possible  to  take  up  the  journey  by 
noon. 

But  there  were  more  serious  things  to  con- 
sider. Frey  was  dead  and  in  two  halves,  and 
how  could  they  go  without  Frey?  How 
could  they  go  with  him,  either?  He  did  not 
know  what  had  better  be  done. 

But  Sigrid  knew  very  well.  When  Gun- 
nar came  back  to  her  she  told  him. 

"We  must  go  on,"  she  said,  *'and  it  is  for 
you  now  to  be  Frey.     You  are  strikingly  like 

174 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  175 

him.  You  would  do  much  greater  miracles 
than  ever  he  did — as,"  she  said,  ''yo^  have  al- 
ready done." 

Gunnar  thought  about  it.  "It  could  be 
done,  I  dare  say.  But  we  have  no  wagoner. 
You  would  not  have  Frey  drive  his  own 
team." 

She  said,  "We  shall  easily  find  a  teamster 
in  the  country.  And  until  we  have  one  I  can 
drive  the  beasts." 

Gunnar  said  that  that  would  not  suit  him 
at  all.  But  they  settled  it  this  way,  that  he 
should  drive  until  they  were  nearing  the  vil- 
lage, which  lay  upon  a  shoulder  of  the  moun- 
tain, not  far  from  the  pass  on  the  further 
side.  Then  Sigrid  would  go  and  find  a  wag- 
oner and  return  with  him. 

It  was  necessary  to  mend  Frey's  oak-leaf 
crown,  which  was  in  two  pieces.  Gunnar 
joined  them  neatly  together,  and  gilded  the 
edges  of  the  fracture.  The  ax  had  been  very 
sharp,  the  cut  very  clean.     There  was  no 


176  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

trouble  with  Frey's  clothing;  Gunnar  was 
happy  to  resume  his  cloak. 

Scarlet  paint  to  his  nostrils  was  all  that  he 
needed  to  make  him  as  like  Frey  as  need  be; 
but  he  did  not  need  as  yet  to  change  his  nature 
and  attributes.  There  would  be  time  enough 
for  that  when  Sigrid  was  gone  for  the  wag- 
oner. 

They  took  up  the  journey  again  through 
the  fast-melting  snow.  It  was  hard  work, 
but  the  sun  was  shining,  the  sky  without  a 
cloud ;  they  made  way  and  reached  the  top  of 
the  pass  without  serious  delay.  Thence  they 
could  see  the  village  below  them.  They  saw 
also  that  on  that  side  of  the  mountain  the 
snow  had  not  drifted  so  much.  It  had  been 
exposed  to  the  full  fury  of  the  wind,  which 
had  blown  the  snow  off  as  fast  as  it  fell. 
Gunnar  considered  that  this  would  be  a  good 
place  to  wait  for  the  teamster ;  but  Sigrid  told 
him  that  a  little  way  down  there  was  a  bet- 
ter. 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  177 

'There  is  a  shelter  there,"  she  said,  "and 
a  Httle  birch  wood.  You  will  be  more  con- 
cealed, and  I  shall  not  have  so  far  to  come 
back  to  you." 

Gunnar  laughed.  "Now  that  you  have  me, 
you  are  glad  of  me." 

Her  answer  was  a  long  look,  and  a  sigh 
from  a  full  heart. 

They  found  the  little  wood  and  steered  the 
team  there.  It  was  in  the  full  sun,  with  very 
little  snow.  Flowers  were  blowing  there,  and 
the  birds  were  very  busy.  Gunnar  kissed 
Sigrid  and  saw  her  go  on  her  errand. 

As  for  her,  she  went  on  her  way  rejoicing. 
She  did  what  she  could  not  remember  to  have 
done  before — for  she  was  by  nature  grave 
and  silent:  she  sang  snatches  of  little  songs, 
at  first  with  no  words  to  them,  but  afterwards 
words  came  of  themselves — names  which  she 
had  had  for  Gunnar  a  long  time  stored  in  her 
heart,  and  others  of  the  kind.     After  a  few 


178  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

turns  of  the  road  she  saw  a  group  of  men  in 
a  walled  close,  and  went  to  them. 

They  said  that  they  were  expecting  Frey 
and  his  wagon,  fearing  that  the  storm  would 
have  stayed  him. 

"Frey  is  quite  well,"  she  said,  "but  we  have 
lost  our  wagoner,  who  was  a  Norwegian,  and 
Frey's  priest  also.  He  disappeared  in  the 
storm,  and  we  suppose  he  perished  in  a  drift." 

"Better  men  than  he  have  perished  last 
night,"  said  one  of  the  men.  "But  who  may 
you  be,  mistress?" 

Sigrid  said,  "I  am  Frey's  wife."  And  then 
they  all  knew  her  and  saluted  her  with  great 
respect. 

"Frey  sent  me,"  said  she,  "to  find  a  man  of 
yours  to  lead  his  wagon  into  your  village. 
Afterwards  we  must  let  him  choose  one  who 
will  continue  with  him  on  his  rounds.  It  is 
not  likely  he  will  have  a  new  man  from  every 
village.     He  would  not  be  pleased  with  that." 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  179 

They  talked  together,  and  then  said  they 
would  all  come  gladly. 

"Very  good,"  she  said.  "You  shall  all 
bring  us  into  the  village.  Now  we  will  go 
back,  for  Frey  is  alone,  and  I  don't  know  what 
he  may  do.  He  is  very  strange  this  morning, 
and  I  believe  might  be  dangerous  if  he  were 
vexed  or  in  any  way  put  out." 

They  struck  off  up  the  mountain,  and  when 
they  came  to  the  wagon  in  the  birch  wood, 
there  stood  Frey  with  shining  nostrils,  very 
fierce,  in  the  cart.  He  had  drawn  the  curtains 
so  that  he  might  look  out  over  the  country. 
Sigrid  called  their  attention  to  that. 

"You  see  how  it  is  with  him,"  she  said. 
"Now  I  tell  you  that  when  I  left  him  those  cur- 
tains were  closely  drawn." 

One  of  the  men  said  that  a  night  out  on  the 
mountain  in  such  a  storm  was  enough  to  make 
anybody  angry. 

Gunnar  stood  up  very  regally  while  the  men 


180  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

stood  before  him  bareheaded.  One  man  said 
a  kind  of  a  prayer,  deprecating  his  anger ;  but 
Frey  took  no  notice  of  him. 

Sigrid  said,  "Better  get  on  as  soon  as  may 
be.  He  will  be  hungry,  and  will  do  no  work 
until  he  is  satisfied." 

She  got  up  into  the  wagon  and  sat  beside 
Frey,  and  put  her  hand  within  his  arm.  The 
men  urged  the  oxen  down  the  road,  and  so 
they  came  to  the  village. 

As  soon  as  Sigrid  saw  the  concourse  which 
was  out  to  meet  them  she  drew  the  curtains, 
and  was  immediately  in  Gunnar's  arms.  But 
then,  after  that,  she  had  to  learn  what  were 
his  intentions. 

He  said,  'T  will  have  no  blood-offerings  at 
all.  If  they  must  slay  oxen  and  sheep,  let  it 
be  for  a  good  dinner.  I  will  join  them  there 
and  they  shall  be  the  better  of  it,  as  I  shall  be. 
But  their  offerings  shall  be  gold  or  silver,  or 
clothing,  if  they  wish  to  serve  me.  Eggs,  too, 
I   will   take,   or   cheese,   or   milk,   or  bread. 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  181 

Therefore,  Sigrid,  you  must  make  them  under- 
stand, and  more  than  that,  you  must  drive  it 
into  the  head  of  the  man  you  choose  for  priest, 
that  blood-sacrifices  are  an  abomination  to 
me." 

She  promised  him  that  she  would  see  to  it 
all ;  and  so  they  came  into  the  village  with  the 
people  flocking  about  them.  When  they  had 
taken  up  their  place  and  the  oxen  had  been  un- 
yoked, fed  and  watered,  Sigrid  took  the  head- 
men apart  and  told  them  the  mind  of  Frey. 
They  were  disappointed.  They  said  that  they 
had  many  victims  whom  they  were  anxious  to 
dispose  of,  and  not  much  gold  or  silver  at  any 
rate,  and  none  which  they  could  spare.  They 
hoped,  therefore,  that  Frey  would  accept  of 
the  accustomed  sacrifice,  which  was  a  great 
interest  to  the  people. 

Sigrid  said,  'T  see  how  it  is.  You  wish  to 
glut  yourself  at  Frey's  charge,  and  to  rid  your- 
self of  what  you  don't  want,  nor  Frey,  either. 
But  Frey  knows  this  better  than  you  do,  and 


18^  FREY  AxND  HIS  WIFE 

is  not  to  be  deceived.  You  will  find  out  very- 
soon  that  I  am  right." 

They  said  that  he  should  have  eggs,  bread, 
cheese  and  milk,  and  went  away  very  discon- 
tented. 

The  hour  of  the  sacrifice  was  now  at  hand. 
Trestles  and  boards  were  laid  before  the 
wagon  to  hold  up  the  altar  and  to  make  de- 
grees of  approach  to  it.  Then,  when  songs 
had  been  sung  and  prayers  offered,  Sigrid 
drew  the  curtains  apart  and  revealed  Frey 
to  them. 

They  brought  baskets  of  bread,  cheeses  in 
the  round,  milk  and  eggs.  With  a  bearer  of 
eggs  Frey  worked  his  first  miracle. 

A  certain  man  came  up  with  a  basketful  of 
eggs ;  there  may  have  been  two  dozen  of  them. 
He  knelt  before  Frey  in  his  place  in  the  row, 
waiting  his  turn.  Gunnar,  watching  him, 
saw  him  fingering  the  eggs  while  he  waited, 
turning  them  over,  lifting  one  and  weighing  it 
in  his  hands.     Presently  he  saw  him  take  two 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  183 

from  the  basket  and  slip  them  in  his  pocket. 
When  he  put  his  hand  to  them  again  Frey 
brought  his  budded  staff  smartly  down  upon 
the  back  of  it,  and  smashed  it  into  his  eggs. 
The  man  gave  a  yell,  and  fell  down  upon  his 
face.  All  the  rest  shrank  away  in  consterna- 
tion, and  there  was  great  commotion  down  be- 
low. The  man,  sobbing  and  blubbering,  drew 
out  of  his  pocket  the  stolen  eggs.  Never  had 
been  such  a  miracle  as  this  within  the  memory 
of  man.  The  Immediate  effect  of  it  was  to 
bring  out  treasure  to  the  shrine.  Women 
brought  their  marriage  crowns,  men  their 
rings  and  armlets.  Fine  cloth  was  offered  and 
stuff  embroidered  with  silk  and  gold.  In  the 
evening  there  was  a  feast,  to  which  Frey  him- 
self came,  and  to  their  wonder  and  satisfac- 
tion ate  and  drank  with  the  best.  He  said 
little;  but  he  listened,  and  nodded  his  head 
when  he  was  pleased,  or  knit  his  brows  when 
he  was  angry.  Next  day  he  was  drawn  in  his 
wagon  to  their  closes  and  fields,  and  blessed 


184  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

them  all  very  graciously.  He  gave  them  to 
understand  through  his  wife  that  by  bank- 
ing up  a  torrent  they  could  easily  turn  it  and 
make  a  head  of  water  enough  to  keep  the  pas- 
ture green  all  the  summer  through.  Another 
thing  he  told  them  was  how  to  make  conduit 
pipes  of  the  split  trunks  of  trees,  hollowed  out. 
All  these  things  were  wonderful,  and  carried 
the  name  and  fame  of  Frey  before  him.  The 
offerings  poured  into  his  treasury;  he  was 
rich,  and  had  no  more  trouble  with  blood-sac- 
rifices. By  the  end  of  the  sowing  season  Frey 
was  so  rich  that  the  wagon  could  scarcely  hold 
him,  his  wife  and  the  treasure.  He  talked  to 
Sigrid  about  it,  and  said,  "Sweetheart,  I  am 
thinking  that  we  should  do  well  to  have  a 
bodyguard  before  we  get  into  our  own  coun- 
try." 

Sigrid,  who  was  sitting  on  his  knee  at  the 
time,  said  that  no  one  would  dare  to  attack 
Frey ;  but  Gunnar  nodded  his  head. 

"Fame  is  a  strange  thing,"  he  told  her;  "it 


MORROW  OF  THE  STORM  186 

takes  the  guise  that  is  most  in  men's  fancy. 
Now,  for  one  man  who  has  heard  report  of 
our  miracles,  there  will  be  twenty  who  know 
that  we  have  a  full  treasury.  I  am  minded 
to  have  a  guard  before  we  cross  the  river  and 
come  into  the  parts  where  we  are  known  best. 
And  do  you  know  what  I  am  thinking  is  go- 
ing to  be  the  crown  of  Frey's  achievement?" 

She  said,  wonderingly,  "No."  Then  Gun- 
nar  kissed  her.  And  then  she  told  him  that 
she  knew  quite  well  what  he  meant,  and  that 
the  truth  was  so. 

"Great  is  Frey,"  said  Gunnar. 


XVIII 

News  of  Frey  Reaches  Norway 

IN  Norway,  under  King  Olaf  Trygvasson, 
affairs  were  prospering  all  this  while. 
The  king  had  settled  his  kingdom  into  his  own 
ways,  and  being  of  a  restless  and  acquisitive 
mind,  he  was  already  thinking  how  he  could 
better  himself.  He  had  thought  more  than 
once  of  Iceland  as  a  heathen  country  stocked 
with  fine  people  well  worth  the  pains  of  con- 
version. 

"To  drive  them  to  the  water  may  cost  me 
five  hundred  lives,"  he  said,  "but  you  may  take 
that  as  a  sowing  of  which  the  harvest  will 
be  a  thousandfold.  Christ  will  win  souls  and 
I  a  new  realm."  The  more  he  thought  of  it 
the  more  he  desired  to  do  it. 

}86 


NEWS  OF  FREY  REACHES  NORWAY      187 

Then  there  came  strange  news  out  of 
Sweden,  of  painful  interest  to  King  Olaf. 
He  heard  of  mighty  stirrings  of  the  pagan 
people  out  there,  of  miracles  wrought  by  their 
chief  god  Frey  which  surpassed  any  which  his 
own  priests  could  do.  What  struck  him  most 
in  these  accounts  was  that  the  manner  of  de- 
votion had  been  changed.  Frey,  he  was  as- 
sured, was  milder-mannered,  and  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  human  sacrifice.  j\Iore 
than  that,  blood-offerings  of  all  sorts  were  ut- 
terly done  away  with.  The  king  could  not 
understand  it,  and  talked  it  over  with  the  lords 
of  his  council. 

"It  looks  to  me,"  he  said,  ''as  if  Frey  were 
half-way  to  being  a  Christian.  Not  only 
will  he  have  no  bloodshed,  but  all  his  works 
are  those  of  mercy.  He  heals  the  sick,  com- 
forts the  fatherless,  gives  sight  to  the  blind, 
sets  captives  free !  There  is  something  in  all 
this  which  I  cannot  fathom.  But  let  me  tell 
you  that  the  baptism  of  a  heathen  god  would 


188  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

be  a  thing  to  root  the  true  faith  in  the  rock, 
as  it  should  be.  Then  it  would  stand  fast  for- 
ever." 

Some  said  one  thing,  and  some  another. 
But  Sigurd  Helming  looked  down  at  his 
finger  nails  with  his  brows  drawn  up  very 
high,  and  said  nothing  at  all. 

He  was  so  pointedly  silent  that  the  king  ob- 
served it.  "Well,"  he  asked  him,  "and  what 
are  you  thinking  to  see  in  your  finger 
nails?" 

Sigurd  held  up  the  forefinger  of  one  hand. 
"There  is  a  white  fleck  in  this  one,"  he  said, 
"which  warns  me  of  a  stranger  in  Sweden." 

"Well,"  said  King  Olaf,  "and  that  is  true  to 
report.     What  next?" 

"Sir,"  said  Sigurd,  "a  stranger  to  my 
knowledge  went  into  Sweden  a  year  ago,  and 
has  not  been  heard  of  as  coming  out  again. 
That  was  my  brother  Gunnar,  who  went  for 
a  good  reason." 

The  king  frowned.     "You  did  no  service  to 


NEWS  OF  FREY  REACHES  NORWAY      189 

this  country  when  you  warned  him  of  my 
anger." 

''Sir,"  Sigurd  said,  "I  know  that.  But  I 
was  very  sure  then  that  he  had  no  part  in  Hal- 
ward's  slaughter,  and  I  believe  that  you  had 
an  inkling  of  how  the  case  stood.  Otherwise 
you  had  not  kept  me  in  your  council,  but  had 
expelled  me  the  realm." 

'Well,"  said  the  king,  "what  I  have  heard 
since  has  softened  my  resentment ;  but  I  know 
nothing.  W^hat  makes  you  see  the  mind  of 
Gunnar  in  these  heathen  doings?" 

"The  knowledge  I  have  of  his  mind,"  said 
Sigurd.  "He  is  a  merry  man  and  a  mild- 
mannered  man  until  he  is  vexed.  Now,  he 
never  would  sacrifice  beasts  to  the  gods  in 
the  old  days  when  the  gods  required  it.  And 
he  always  said  that  it  was  better  to  kill  a  man 
outright  than  to  keep  him  in  chains  or  dark- 
ness. These  are  two  reasons.  Lastly,  if  it  is 
true  that  Frey  had  a  woman  for  his  wife.  I 
believe  that  Gunnar  has  her  now%  and  that  the 


190  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

next  miracle  of  Frey's  we  hear  about  will  be 
that  she  is  to  give  him  a  child." 

The  king  took  hold  of  his  chin  under 
his  beard,  and  considered.  Then  he  said, 
''Sigurd,  do  you  go  into  Sweden  and  witness 
some  of  the  doings  of  Frey.  If  you  are  right 
in  what  you  suspect — and  I  think  that  you 
are — you  will  see  Gunnar,  and  maybe  he  will 
tell  you  the  truth  of  the  matter.  It  is  an  old 
story  by  now,  but  I  don't  say  that  I  shall  not 
have  a  word  with  the  slayer  of  Halward  here- 
after if  I  happen  to  meet  with  him." 

Sigurd  said  that  he  would  gladly  go  to 
Sweden.  It  was  settled  that  he  should  set  out 
in  the  summer  when  the  passes  were  open  and 
Frey  at  home  again. 


XIX 

Sigurd  in  Sweden.     The  Battle  of 
THE  Ford 

SIGURD  said  that  he  should  go  to  Sweden 
by  sea,  as  that  was  the  quicker  w^ay  for 
one  who  did  not  know  the  land  ways.  He 
had  a  ship  fitted  out,  and  was  often  down  on 
the  hard,  either  going  to  his  ship  or  coming 
from  it. 

One  day  he  saw,  or  thought  he  saw,  Gun- 
nar  sitting  there  in  the  sun.  It  was  a  man 
of  about  his  size  in  a  cloak  which  he  had  been 
fond  of  wearing;  a  faded  red  cloak  with  a 
hood  to  it  which  stuck  out  in  a  bunch  upon 
his  shoulders.  After  a  good  look  at  him  he 
knew  that  it  could  not  be  Gunnar,  but  was  still 
curious  about  the  cloak.     He  went  up  to  the 

191 


192  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

man  until  he  could  touch  him,  and  then  did 
touch  him  by  lifting  up  the  hem  of  the  cloak 
to  see  if  the  braid  were  like  that  of  Gunnar's. 
It  was  the  very  same. 

"Good  day  to  you,"  Sigurd  said,  and  the 
man,  seeing  a  lord  beside  him,  rose  up  and 
saluted  him.  He  looked  like  a  fisherman  or 
seafarer. 

"I  was  interested  in  your  cloak,"  Sigurd 
said.  "I  think  my  brother  Gunnar  will  have 
given  it  to  you.  But  he  left  the  country  more 
than  a  twelvemonth  ago,  and  I  see  that  you 
have  worn  it  hard." 

The  man  laughed.  "Not  so  hard  then,"  he 
said,  "seeing  I  have  not  had  it  in  my  hands 
more  than  a  few  days,  and  this  is  but  the  sec- 
ond time  I  have  worn  it." 

"From  whom  did  you  receive  it?  I  must 
needs  know,  for  a  good  deal  hangs  upon  what 
you  tell  me." 

The  man  stared,  and  then  looked  rather 
sullen.     "It  is  fairly  mine,"  he  said,  "as  a 


SIGURD  IN  SWEDEN  193 

thing  is  that  comes  from  the  bottom  of  the 
sea." 

Now  it  was  Sigurd  who  stared.  "You 
fished  it  up  from  the  sea-bed?" 

"It  came  up  with  my  anchor  six  nights  ago 
or  seven." 

"Where  were  you  moored?" 

He  pointed  out  to  sea.  "I  was  lying  just 
ofif  the  Ness,  having  been  out  with  the  nets. 
But  the  wind  shifted  at  sunset,  and  I  was  not 
hurried,  so  stayed  there  snug  enough  till 
morning.  It  is  a  soft  bottom  there.  In  the 
morning  I  shipped  my  anchor,  and  up  comes 
this  cloak  with  a  great  stone  in  the  hood  of  it. 
It  had  been  cast  there  by  somebody  who 
wanted  it  to  stay  there,  but  you  see  things 
went  awry  with  him." 

"They  did  so,"  said  Sigurd.  "Now  I  will 
give  you  three  crowns  for  the  cloak  as  it 
stands." 

"If  you  do  that  you  do  a  foolish  thing,"  said 
the  man,  "but  it  is  not  for  me  to  stop  you." 


194*  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"It's  not  so  foolish  as  you  suppose,"  Sigurd 
answered.  He  paid  over  his  money,  and  away 
with  the  cloak. 

"I  take  you  with  me  to  find  your  master," 
he  said  to  it,  very  well  satisfied  with  his  morn- 
ing's work. 

He  made  a  good  journey  in  his  ship,  coasted 
the  land  of  Sweden  and  ran  up  a  long  way 
into  the  land.  He  arrived  there  toward  the 
middle  of  the  summer,  and  made  inquiries  of 
the  whereabouts  of  the  woodland  Frey. 
Hereabouts,  they  told  him,  he  was  not  wor- 
shiped, though  great  tales  were  told  of  him 
which  had  shaken  many,  and  moved  some  to 
go  into  the  forest  country  to  judge  for  them- 
selves. They  gave  him  certain  information 
where  that  country  was.  He  was  to  follow 
the  course  of  the  river  up  into  the  land. 
When  it  ran  finer  he  would  come  to  a  good 
ford.  On  the  west  of  that  lay  the  country  of 
the  woodland  Frey. 


SIGURD  IN  SWEDEN  195 

Sigurd  set  off  on  horseback  with  a  good 
retinue,  and  made  long  journeys.  In  about 
ten  days  or  a  fortnight  the  river  began  to  run 
brokenly;  in  a  day  more  he  should  be  at  the 
ford.  So  it  proved.  The  country  ran  flat  in 
a  broad  valley,  on  the  west  of  which,  climbing 
gradually  to  the  mountains,  so  far  as  the  eye 
could  see,  there  was  forest. 

They  kept  a  lookout  for  the  ford,  and  pres- 
ently a  man  of  theirs,  riding  in  front,  stopped, 
looked  earnestly,  and  then  held  up  his  hand 
with  a  spear  in  it.     They  came  up  with  him. 

''What  is  it  you  see?"  Sigurd  asked  him. 

'T  see  the  ford,"  he  said,  "and  I  see  also 
men  fighting  about  it.  And  it  seems  to  me 
that  twenty  are  attacking  a  few." 

Sigurd  was  looking  as  they  all  were. 
"What  are  those  white  animals  I  see  on  this 
bank?" 

"They  are  oxen,"  said  the  lookout  man. 

"I  see  also  a  great  wagon  they  have  behind 
them.     And  I   believe  that   Frey  is   in   the 


196  PREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

wagon.  What  I  marvel  at  is  that  he  should 
be  there  at  all  and  not  among  the  fighters." 

"Would  Frey  fight  men?"  he  was  asked. 

"If  he  is  what  I  believe  him,"  said  Sigurd, 
"he  would  gladly  fight  men." 

They  rode  on  cautiously,  taking  what  cover 
they  could,  and  came  up  within  a  bowshot  of 
the  fight.  Then  they  saw  that  there  were 
eight  men  against  the  twenty,  of  whom  some 
were  fallen  into  the  river,  and  some  fell  even 
as  they  looked.  Nevertheless,  the  greater 
party  was  prevailing.  They  had  pushed  back 
the  eight  to  the  close  neighborhood  of  the 
wagon,  and  it  looked  as  if  it  would  go  hard 
with  them.  Frey,  they  could  see,  stood  fixedly 
in  the  front  of  the  cart  with  his  crown  on  his 
head,  and  his  cone  and  rod  in  his  hands. 
Sigurd  wondered  at  him,  and  could  not  think 
it  was  Gunnar. 

But  even  while  he  thought,  he  saw  Frey 
drop  his  cone  and  reach  stealthily  behind  him. 
He  found  what  he  wanted  and  held  it  behind 


SIGURD  IN  SWEDEN  197 

his  back,  staring  all  the  while  fixedly  in  front. 

Then  all  of  a  sudden  Frey  roared  aloud, 
making  a  terrible  booming  noise,  and  leaped 
from  the  cart  into  the  midst  of  the  fight. 
Sigurd  now  saw  that  he  had  in  his  right  hand 
an  ax,  and  remarked  with  pleasure  how 
doughtily  he  laid  about  him  with  it,  and  how 
men  fell  before  him.  Frey  kept  up  his  roar- 
ing, which  was  like  the  noise  of  a  great 
buzzing  windmill,  and  seemed  to  paralyze  his 
enemies,  who  gave  back  in  confusion  until 
they  were  at  the  water's  edge. 

"Now  is  our  time,"  said  Sigurd,  and  gave 
the  order  to  set  on. 

So  they  did,  with  spears,  and  completed  the 
rout.  All  the  remnant  of  the  assailants  was 
slain.     Then  Sigurd  turned  him  to  Frey. 

"This  is  the  last  of  your  miracles,  brother," 
he  said,  "or  the  last  but  one.  You  had  no 
need  of  us." 

Gunnar  turned  upon  him  in  wonderment. 
"Ah,   it   is   you   Sigurd!     I   cry  you   hail!" 


198  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

Then  they  shook  hands  and  embraced  each 
other  with  great  joy. 

Gunnar  told  Sigurd  that  he  had  had  sus- 
picions of  some  such  thing,  "since  the  people 
on  this  side  of  the  river  have  no  love  for 
Frey,"  and  knew  what  a  treasure  he  had  in 
his  wagon.  He  had  prepared  himself  before- 
hand with  a  tolerable  company;  but  the  ma- 
rauders were  in  greater  force  than  he  had 
thought  for.  *'So  it  was  needful  for  Frey 
himself  to  make  an  example  of  them." 

Then  Sigurd  asked  to  be  shown  the  treas- 
ure ;  ''and  they  tell  me,  Gunnar,  that  you  have 
more  than  gold  and  silver  with  you." 

"So  I  have,"  said  Gunnar,  "as  you  shall 
see." 

He  called  Sigrid,  who  then  came  down 
from  the  cart  and  greeted  Sigurd  with  gravity 
and  timidity  mingled.  She  stood  very  close 
to  Gunnar  all  the  time.  Sigurd  approved 
highly  of  her,  and  said,  "I  see  that  the 
crowning  wonder  of  Frey's  life  on  earth  is  to 


SIGURD  IN  SWEDEN  199 

be  accomplished  in  her."  This  he  said  to 
Gunnar  when  they  were  alone,  and  Gunnar 
did  not  deny  it. 

When  they  had  eaten,  drunken  and  rested 
themselves,  Gunnar  desired  to  know  what  had 
brought  his  brother  adventuring  into  these 
wilds.  Sigurd  said,  A\>11!  he  had  heard  ru- 
mors of  Frey's  doings  which  put  him  in  mind 
of  Gunnar.  These  had  been  spoken  of  in  the 
king's  council,  and  authority  given  to  him  to 
go  out  and  satisfy  himself. 

''And  I  may  tell  you,"  he  continued,  ''that 
King  Olaf's  anger  with  you  is  over,  and  that 
you  need  not  fear  the  sight  of  a  tree  any 
more.  But  we  will  talk  about  that  another 
time.  Let  me  see  this  fine  treasure  of  yours 
which  your  magic  has  drawn  from  the 
Swedes." 

Gunnar  said,  'T  don't  know  that  there  was 
much  magic  about  it.  I  gave  them  what  they 
wanted,  they  gave  me  what  I  wanted.  It 
seems  a  fair  barter.     And  let  me  tell  vou,  it 


200  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

is  no  light  matter  for  me  to  be  silent  when 
men  are  feasting;  and  to  fill  up  my  nostrils 
with  red  paint  every  morning — that  is  worth 
its  price  also." 

"But  you  had  a  pretty  wife  to  talk  with," 
said  Sigurd. 

'To  be  sure  I  had,"  Gunnar  replied,  "and 
a  great  to-do  before  I  had  her." 

Sigrid  brought  out  the  treasure  to  show  to 
Sigurd.     He  was  amazed. 

"I  had  not  believed  there  was  so  much  gold 
and  silver  in  Sweden,"  he  said.  Then  he  saw 
the  cloths,  the  tissues  of  silk  and  linen,  and 
the  raiment.  By-and-by  he  turned  over  the 
green  and  brown  cloak  which  Gunnar  had 
brought  with  him  from  Drontheim.  "Here 
is  a  notable  cloak,"  he  said,  "the  like  of  which 
I  have  seen  before." 

"Have  you  though?"  said  Gunnar,  and 
laughed.  "That  is  Frey's  own  cloak,  which 
I  vowed  to  him  when  I  took  service  under 
him,  and  long  before  I  made  palings  of  him." 


SIGURD  IN  SWEDEN  201 

Sigurd  said,  "Wait  a  little.  I  think  I  can 
match  it."  He  went  away  to  his  company 
and  came  back  with  Gunnar's  red-hooded 
cloak  in  his  hands.  "Here,"  he  said,  "is  a  fel- 
low to  it,  somewhat  tousled  and  time-worn. 
Do  you  know  it?" 

Gunnar  handled  it  with  affection.  "That 
is  an  old  friend  which  I  never  thought  to  see 
again,"  he  said.  "The  last  time  I  saw  it,  it 
was  on  the  back  of  a  dirty  rascal." 

Sigurd  told  him  the  tale  of  its  recovery, 
and  how  a  great  stone  had  come  up  in  the 
hood  of  it.     Gunnar  said : 

"I  see  it — but  I  saw  it  all  at  the  time." 

"I  did  not,"  said  Sigurd,  "but  now  I  do.  I 
shall  keep  both  of  these  cloaks,  by  your  leave," 
he  said.  "King  Olaf  requires  to  be  con- 
vinced." 

Gunnar  said  that  he  was  ready  to  go  back 
with  his  brother  the  way  he  had  come,  but 
that  he  would  send  Frey's  wagon  home  across 
the  ford. 


202  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"If  they  need  a  new  Frey,"  he  said,  "they 
will  make  one  for  themselves." 

"There's  a  new  Frey  on  the  road,"  said 
Sigurd,  "who  would  give  them  great  satisfac- 
tion ;"  but  Gunnar  said  that  he  had  had  enough 
godship. 

So  they  returned  along  the  river  road,  and 
Sigrid  had  her  first  sight  of  the  sea,  and  a 
taste  of  its  quality. 


XX 

The  End  of  the  Tale 

GUNNAR  found  himself  rich  with  all  his 
Swedish  treasure,  and  bought  land  in  a 
dale  of  Drontheim,  and  set  to  work  building 
a  fine  house.  About  Christmastime  Sigrid 
gave  birth  to  a  son,  which  was  a  great  affair. 
But  before  any  of  these  things  happened  to 
him  he  had  to  see  King  Olaf ,  who  received  him 
with  a  wry  smile. 

"So  you  are  not  only  contumacious,  but  in- 
veterate in  sin,"  he  said;  but  Gunnar  could 
see  that  he  wasn't  angry.  "You  not  only 
deny  my  God,  but  set  yourself  up  as  His 
rival.  And  now  you  are  in  my  hands,  what 
am  I  to  do?" 

"Sir,"  said  Gunnar,  "it  is  rather  true  that 

203 


204  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

the  only  way  I  had  of  escaping  your  rope  was 
to  run  among  the  heathen.  As  for  my  god- 
head, that  in  a  sense  was  forced  upon  me.  I 
would  have  you  remark  that  I  slew  a  god  be- 
fore I  became  one  myself." 

"You  slew  a  god  and  took  his  wife,"  said 
the  king.  "I  should  like  to  see  Frey's  wife. 
You  shall  bring  her  to  me,  if  you  please.  I 
have  many  questions  to  put  to  her." 

So  Sigrid  was  brought  to  King  Olaf,  who 
questioned  her  alone.  But  he  found  it  one 
thing  to  question  and  another  thing  to  get  an- 
swered. As  to  her  origin,  she  was  quite  will- 
ing to  repeat  all  that  she  had  told  Gunnar  early 
in  her  acquaintance  with  him.  King  Olaf 
knew  her  country  and  the  city  of  Prag,  from 
which  it  seemed  she  had  come,  very  well. 
Then  he  wanted  to  know  about  her  marriage 
with  Frey,  and  she  became  dumb.  How  long 
was  it  before  she  knew  that  Frey  was  nought  ? 
No  answer.  What  sort  of  communication 
had  passed  between  her  and  Frey?     No  an- 


THE  END  OF  THE  TALE  205 

swer.  Was  Frey  kind  to  her?  Did  he  beat 
her?  Was  it  his  eyes  which  dominated  her? 
No  answers. 

Lastly  he  said  this :  ''Have  you  told  Gun- 
nar  everything  that  there  is  to  tell  ?" 

To  that  she  answered,  "Yes,"  and  her  eyes 
were  unclouded  and  not  afraid  of  the  king's. 

"Well!"  said  Olaf;  and  that  was  all  there 
was  to  say  about  it. 

The  king  told  Gunnar  that  he  was  not  mar- 
ried at  all,  to  which  Gunnar  answered,  "Ho, 
am  I  not?"  But  he  went  on  to  say  that  he 
had  vowed  himself  to  Christianity  on  the 
night  of  his  marriage,  and  that  he  and  Sigrid 
were  very  ready  to  accomplish  the  vow.  The 
king  agreed  to  it;  so  the  pair  of  them  went 
into  the  water  with  the  Bishop  of  Drontheim, 
and  were  afterwards  married  again  by  the 
laws  of  Christendom  and  Holy  Church. 

Men  sat  still  then  for  the  winter,  and  in  the 
spring  King  Olaf  gathered  his  hosts  and  fitted 
out  his  long  ships  for  work  in  Iceland.     Gun- 


206  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

nar  excused  himself,  saying  that  he  was  busy 
with  his  new  house  and  his  child ;  but  he  spoke 
more  freely  to  Sigurd. 

"1  know  one  thing  which  you  intend  do- 
ing over  there,"  he  said,  ''and  I  will  have  no 
share  in  it  myself.  I  owe  no  grudge  to  Og- 
mund  Dint,  though  it  was  a  dirty  trick  he 
played  me  for  his  own  beastly  ends.  But  I 
got  Sigrid  out  of  the  adventure  and  every- 
thing I  possess,  and  that's  enough  for  me." 

"Plenty,"  said  Sigurd,  "and  I  am  with  you, 
and  should  do  the  same  if  I  were  in  your  place. 
But  the  king  won't  have  slayings  done  in  Nor- 
way unavenged.  He  is  very  bitter  against 
Ogmund,  and  I  fancy  it  will  go  hard  with 
him." 

"I  don't  doubt  that,"  said  Gunnar.  "King 
Olaf  is  a  hard  nut  to  crack." 

The  expedition  sailed,  and  sailed  north. 
The  landing  was  made  in  Shaw  Firth  where 
Ogmund's  father.  Raven,  was  a  great  man. 


THE  END  OF  THE  TALE  gOT 

But  Ogmund  himself  was  not  there.  Wigf  us, 
who  was  in  the  host,  told  the  king  where  he 
would  be  found,  and  when  matters  had  been 
settled  in  the  north  the  fleet  sailed  about  to  the 
east  of  Iceland  and  made  a  new  landing,  not 
far  from  Thwartwatsr. 

Ogmund  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  chief- 
tains in  those  parts  to  submit  himself  to  King 
Olaf 's  baptism. 

The  king  received  him  coldly  and  put  him 
on  one  side.  '1  will  consider  of  it,"  he  said, 
"but  first  I  wish  to  see  old  Battle-Glum,  who 
is  a  man  after  my  own  heart." 

Battle-Glum  was  brought  before  him,  and 
refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  Chris- 
tianity. *'I  am  an  old  man  now,"  he  said, 
"looking  out  for  my  end.  It  is  late  for  me  to 
change  my  opinions.  Thor  is  the  god  I  wor- 
ship, and  in  that  faith  will  I  die.  It  matters 
very  little  to  me  whether  I  die  at  your  hands, 
or  in  my  bed.  I  have  settled  all  my  affairs. 
Wigfus  will  take  Thwartwater  after  me.     He 


^08  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

is  young  and  can  follow  what  gods  he  pleases. 
So  also  can  Ogmund,  my  foster-son." 

"Wigfus  your  son,"  said  the  king,  "is  a 
Christian  already;  but  Ogmund  your  foster- 
son  is  not.  He  is  here  at  hand,  and  I  will  have 
him  in  before  you  that  you  may  know  some- 
thing about  him  before  you  die." 

Ogmund  was  brought  in,  and  Sigurd  also 
was  present.  Sigurd  said,  "The  last  time  you 
were  in  Drontheim  you  left  something  behind 
you  which  I  desire  to  give  back.  But  there 
is  some  doubt  left  as  to  which  of  two  things 
is  yours,  and  I  would  have  you  settle  it,  Og- 
mund." 

Ogmund  said  that  he  would  do  so  with 
pleasure. 

Then  Sigurd  said,  "You  left  a  dead  man  ly- 
ing in  his  blood,  and  a  cloak." 

Ogmund  Dint  said  that  he  left  no  cloak, 
"and  as  for  the  man,  I  slew  him  fairly." 

Sigurd  said,  "You  left  two  cloaks,  one  in  the 
water  with  a  great  stone  in  it,  and  one  on  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  TALE  209 

back  of  my  brother  Gunnar.  Here  they  are. 
Which  do  you  say  is  yours?" 

Ogmund  was  very  troubled.  He  touched 
the  fine  cloak.     "I  say  that  that  is  mine." 

"You  lie,  Ogmund,"  said  Sigurd.  "That 
was  in  Gunnar's  keeping.     He  gave  it  to  me." 

Then  Ogmund  was  for  justifying  himself 
to  the  king;  but  King  Olaf  told  the  story  at 
length  to  Battle-Glum.  Glum  listened  to  it, 
and  said  little.  "Thrall's  blood  will  show 
itself,"  he  remarked  finally.  "I  expected 
something  of  the  kind."  Then  he  turned  to 
King  Olaf  and  said,  "Do  you  propose  to  have 
this  man  baptized?"     The  king  said,  "I  do." 

Then  Battle-Glum  said,  "And  do  you  ask 
me  to  be  of  the  same  religion?"  The  king 
told  him  he  could  do  as  he  pleased. 

"You  are  a  credit  to  any  religion,"  he  told 
him. 

Ogmund  Dint  asked  vehemently  for  bap- 
tism. 

"You    shall    have    it,"    said    King    Olaf. 


210  FREY  AND  HIS  WIFE 

"You  shall  be  baptized  first  and  hanged  after- 
wards, lest  your  punishment  be  eternal  as  well 
as  temporal.'* 
Which  was  done. 


THE  END 


F7f 


DATE  DUE 

1 

CA YLORD 

»SlNTEO   CM   U.S. A  . 

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